My favorite Bionic Commando is still the Gameboy version. It is, in fact, one of my favorite games.
Speaking of these two things, Bionic Commando: Elite Forces for the Game Boy Color (developed/published by Nintendo, incidentally) had this neat element where you could stop at certain points and enter a sort of sniper mode that allowed you to take out enemies in a tower way into the background.
Anyone yay or nay for that?
I've personally only played Elite Forces for about 45 seconds. (And I didn't "like" the sniping then, but I was just trying to figure it out. I wouldn't say I have an actual opinion of it yet.) I've never actually found an affordable copy to buy when I've had the cash. I do remember EGM giving it great reviews back in the day.
Gibbs on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
New weapons, new Bionic Arm abilities, and some other neat fun stuff, too.
But there is one new addition that is more unsettling than any other...
That's right... Nathan "Rad" Spencer is now equipped with a bionic mustache*!!!
*Note: Mustache may not actually be bionic.
No new information on the press release front, it's pretty much the same thing they showed a couple of months ago. However, if you want new screenshots, look no further.
Finally, GameTrailers has some new videos, including a "tech interview:"
Oh man, the destructible environments alone are going to make this game so fucking badass, I cannot wait. A buncha new guns and a way improved graphical facelift, where do I sign up?
Stache Spencer is so much better than Dread Spencer.
Ahaaaa...they're not going anywhere with that story I hope.
I like that game.
I want more of that game.
All of the rest of you can stuff it while I mourn GRIN.
Yep. I liked it for what it was (But seriously, screw 100% completion in that game, especially on Commando. Horrible.)
yes.
i was at 80% collection of the secret thingies, when i accidentally triggered a transition to the next level while trying to get on top of a wall to get the next collectible.
OOPS NEW LEVEL AUTOSAVE ALL YOUR WORK IS GONE FOREVER
i liked the lack of jumping in the first rearmed, but i mean all the levels were designed around that limitation so it worked well. presumably the levels will be designed around your new jumping ability this time around, so it will also work well. im really pumped about rearmed 2 yep. the first one is one of my favorite downloadable games.
I don't know why people were (are?) getting annoyed over the addition of jumping. Not having that in a whole new game would be a huge oversight since video games aren't limited to the limitations of the NES anymore.
I'm also not going to buy that it loses the feel of the old games since the BC sequel made it pretty obvious that the act of swinging around is the real draw and not some archaic way of moving around. I just hope they don't try to do some continuity with that game since the story is far too stupid.
I just want to say that I find is silly that people think the only reason the NES Bionic Commando had no jump was the lack of buttons. The original arcade Bionic Commando did not use a jump button.
And some NES games used up for jump, if Bionic Commando was "lacking" a jump they would have included it.
It was a intentional design choice on the part of the developers.
That being said, I hope Rearmed 2 will be full of great level design.
Gibbs on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
no, it was a design decision they made because there weren't enough buttons.
they realized that using up to jump for a platformer would be frustrating and terrible.
so they designed the game around the absence of a jump button.
The original Bionic Commando was an arcade game. An arcade game is not limited by a button amount. (as far as I know.)
You want three different kinds of kicks? You put down three kinds of kick buttons. If they wanted Super Joe to jump, they would have planned for a jump button.
Obviously, the NES Bionic Commando was a not port of an arcade game. It was an expansion of a new idea that didn't work just because there was the correct amount of buttons. NES Bionic Commando worked because it was a unique take on platforming during the age of platformers.
Italics.
Gibbs on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
Really a shame about Grin. I thought Bionic Commando was really well done and completely over the top in a hilarious way. Seemed like it was meant to be over the top in the opposite way that Rearmed was.
Really a shame about Grin. I thought Bionic Commando was really well done and completely over the top in a hilarious way. Seemed like it was meant to be over the top in the opposite way that Rearmed was.
Looking forward to this game though.
I just recently got through playing it after having got it in the Steam sale.
They got the swing mechanic so right with the game, but the rest of the design just didn't work. The whole emphasis of the grappling arm is the freedom of motion it provides, how you can span entire city blocks, loop quickly around buildings, and hurl yourself into the sky at a moments notice.
But the levels were all tightly constrained corridors with random radiation pitfalls everywhere, and half the time you could never tell until it was too late. Enemies were just grunts on the ground, when you engaged them it wasn't a battle of free-flowing motion, it was just meh. The biomechs weren't much better, the closest things came to a fun fight were the polycraft.
Enemies should've been designed with the freedom of motion in mind, enemies that would dart around the space and use the surroundings, that you'd have to chase and manoeuvre as they did the same to you.
I say all this, because the multiplayer provides precisely this model, and it's such a shame that the singleplayer never followed suit because it feels so right. The multiplayer maps, whilst smaller, allow for free flowing flying motion everywhere. You don't need to worry about running into random radiation pitfalls, and things are spaced well to make the most of the grappling mechanic. Fighting other players with the same abilities you do turns into swooping dogfights as you pursue each other around and over massive building blocks, trying to give each other the slip or get the right angle on them. There's a gigantic emphasis on stringing your moves together and keeping your momentum flowing, because stopping or running for even a brief moment makes you vulnerable.
I only managed to play a few multiplayer games because the community's largely dead on the PC now (couldn't say what it's like on the consoles). But what I played were some of the most fun deathmatch games I've had in a long time. I usually hate deathmatch games and prefer more team oriented affairs, but the motion alone is almost pure joy, and gives the gameplay a real pacing and strategy that few match.
If there's ever a Bionic Commando 2, they need to have better level design. I can understand you can't have massive open world cities, but the radiation restrictions were often completely arbitrary (the top of this building's OK, the top of that one will kill you), and limited your motion in the worst way. What's worse is that the enemies you encountered didn't really encourage you to make the most of your swing mechanics since they were all stuck on the ground and didn't require any real motion to deal with.
It reminds me a lot of Oni. Some absolutely stellar gameplay mechanics, but they were held back by the other aspects of the game.
i would agree with subedii. i really enjoyed the game, but the level design should have emphasized and complemented the kinetic joy of swinging, not limited it.
That radiation stuff is the worst. It's bad enough that you being near a mysterious blue fog will insta-kill you, but half of the time you don't even see it coming. You just get the warning that you're in danger, and you have to hopefully either just pass it up or figure out where it's coming from.
I played it a bit more the other day and accidently fell into some water while trying to get to a checkpoint. The water is a little higher than he is and he drowns in less than 5 seconds : (
Restart on
0
Options
MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
I disagree about the radiation. It's at its most oppressive in the first couple areas, and it's that way because the game is teaching you to swing with precision along a linear path. It's a skill you need later on. Remember that the it's a nonstandard platformer as much as a shooter. Later on, the game switches between those types of (relatively) linear platforming challenges that are reminiscent of the original game and areas that are more open to support heavily varied combat encounters.
For the type of game it is, it's all completely fitting.
For the type of game it is, it's all completely fitting.
Agreed, although unfortunately the first impressions the game gives off before it ramps up the action give people the cold shoulder apparently.
But they might not be the type of player for that type of game if that's the case.
MrVyngaard on
"now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
I don't buy that at all since it punishes the player for trying to explore the area. There usually is no difference between what you can and can't grapple on to. In fact, it gets even more annoying if you're trying to get all the collectibles.
There were plenty of other ways they could have handled it and the in game justification for it is rather stupid. That only reminds me how dumb taking away arm moves from you until a certain point in the game is not only jarring in the narrative but also a bad design choice.
Shady3011 on
0
Options
MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
I don't buy that at all since it punishes the player for trying to explore the area.
Which would be an issue were this an exploratory game. It is not, though I can understand how someone could go in with that false expectation. Still, it's not that.
In fact, it gets even more annoying if you're trying to get all the collectibles.
Which is the point. The collectibles are the equivalent of the challenge rooms in Rearmed. As far as I'm concerned, the only issue with them is that they don't save at checkpoints.
Game does not pander to the player. Game is serious business. That is the best thing about it.
I didn't have any false expectations. The game throws this huge world at you from the beginning making you believe you can grapple freely and pretty much immediately makes it apparent you can't by killing you. There is usually no indication when the building you're climbing is suddenly not grappable (I think I made up a word) or it gets jarring when the building next to one that is grappable isn't. That's why the collectibles are a problem since sometimes you'll die for no good reason because you'll be lead to believe you'll be safe when you get it but you really won't be.
These are serious design flaws and not part of any really challenge the game has to offer. For as much as I liked the game, dismissing this stuff is kind of absurd.
I don't buy that at all since it punishes the player for trying to explore the area.
This. The game gives you an awesome swing mechanic that gives you amazing mobility, but it constantly feels as if you're restricted in that mobility. Want to swing up onto that building that's a little higher than the troops, and DFA? You can't, radiation. Want to swing around the corner and back the other side? Nope. I've even had a few deaths where I've been grappling onto things just fine, but because I literally hit the invisible "falling death" line whilst moving, the game ended right there without even so much as a radiation warning, Spencer just has a sudden heart attack and falls. Which is all the more bizarre when he can survive falling from a freaking plane.
The levels just weren't designed all that well, they were linear corridors that didn't allow you to make the most of that mobility. When the game opens up and allows you to play (say there's soldiers on a rooftop and you can circle round whichever way you want), then it works really well, but half the time you'd run into the cloud of death.
I can literally spend ten minutes simply swinging around empty multiplayer levels like Island or GrinHouse or 8-Bit. I like the swing mechanic that much. There's a simple joy to nailing the perfect swing, navigating the environment flawlessly and nabbing weapons without even touching the ground. But the SP campaign doesn't allow you to make the most of that freedom. When I'm having fun in empty multiplayer levels but not really in the SP campaign, I just feel something's gone wrong.
How about the Mohole fight? They dump you into the middle of a big empty car park where you can't do any real swinging at all, you're just flinging cars and running around / jumping.
Heck, the assault on the giant mech, where was the daring level where you scaled up its perilous moving legs? Instead you get dumped on there, and have to go to 3 points to disable, it, none those areas make real use of the motion either. Neither does the following boss fight with Groeder, that's just on a platform circular platform where you're jumping out of the way and then zip-kicking him. The final level is literally running down a long straight corridor (because you can't grapple the ceiling for some reason), followed by a series of QTE's for the final boss fight.
When it got to that part where he jumped into the waves of vultures, I actually thought that would make a really good ending piece, swinging from moving creatures, trying to reach the final boss. Instead everything's automated and you're just mashing buttons.
More than anything, Bionic Commando just hit me as really awesome mechanics that weren't used to the best of their ability, and often, not even to good effect. It says a lot that I've played through the game twice now(tried the harder difficulty to see if that improved things, just solidified what I already felt) , but the more I play the more I dislike what happened with it because I just get a better picture of how awesome it could have been. I really want a sequel, I know what happened with the final levels in particular must've mainly been down to time / resource constraints. I don't think they ever intended it to end like that.
Failing that, I wish somebody were still playing the multiplayer these days.
One article from ign shitting on the jump ability and one article from 1up that actually offers some actual impressions. I wont link the ign shit cause its generally uninformative.
1up says you can play the game without using the jump button, which is an interesting development, and also renders idiotic complaints irrelevant!
Have heard a lot about this game release would anyone care to give me some details on the game am still waiting after hearing about it over a week ago and no posts to get a review on the game here.
Have heard a lot about this game release would anyone care to give me some details on the game am still waiting after hearing about it over a week ago and no posts to get a review on the game here.
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2? It's not yet released.
It's planned for the first quarter of 2011.
Gibbs on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
Posts
I've personally only played Elite Forces for about 45 seconds. (And I didn't "like" the sniping then, but I was just trying to figure it out. I wouldn't say I have an actual opinion of it yet.) I've never actually found an affordable copy to buy when I've had the cash. I do remember EGM giving it great reviews back in the day.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Kmn0qPjSk
New weapons, new Bionic Arm abilities, and some other neat fun stuff, too.
But there is one new addition that is more unsettling than any other...
That's right... Nathan "Rad" Spencer is now equipped with a bionic mustache*!!!
*Note: Mustache may not actually be bionic.
No new information on the press release front, it's pretty much the same thing they showed a couple of months ago. However, if you want new screenshots, look no further.
Finally, GameTrailers has some new videos, including a "tech interview:"
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-bionic-commando/700770
Kind of disappointed that Ben Judd is apparently not in charge of this one, or at least he doesn't seem to be. The first Rearmed was just so good...
As for story, at least here they confirmed that this is set a few years after Rearmed, but before last year's retail sequel.
More vids:
Hulk Papa Boss Gameplay
Urban Gameplay
Snow Boss Gameplay
And now, to add the above to the OP...
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Ahaaaa...they're not going anywhere with that story I hope.
I want more of that game.
All of the rest of you can stuff it while I mourn GRIN.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
INSTAGRAM
Yep. I liked it for what it was (But seriously, screw 100% completion in that game, especially on Commando. Horrible.)
Apparently, the controls are remapped. The arm button now jumps, and the button which dropped grenades is now the arm.
Also, anyone catch the "EXPLOD" sign in one of the backgrounds?
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I'm going to remain positive though.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
yes.
i was at 80% collection of the secret thingies, when i accidentally triggered a transition to the next level while trying to get on top of a wall to get the next collectible.
OOPS NEW LEVEL AUTOSAVE ALL YOUR WORK IS GONE FOREVER
that is some fucking terrible design
i really did enjoy the game though.
Apparently, Spencer can't jump very high/far, so you don't have to worry that they are overtaking the swinging mechanic.
edit: Yep, in that trailer it looks like he can jump one block high, two across. Not enough to clear any pit ever
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I'm also not going to buy that it loses the feel of the old games since the BC sequel made it pretty obvious that the act of swinging around is the real draw and not some archaic way of moving around. I just hope they don't try to do some continuity with that game since the story is far too stupid.
And some NES games used up for jump, if Bionic Commando was "lacking" a jump they would have included it.
It was a intentional design choice on the part of the developers.
That being said, I hope Rearmed 2 will be full of great level design.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
they realized that using up to jump for a platformer would be frustrating and terrible.
so they designed the game around the absence of a jump button.
Yea, it was always a pain in the ass.
The original Bionic Commando was an arcade game. An arcade game is not limited by a button amount. (as far as I know.)
You want three different kinds of kicks? You put down three kinds of kick buttons. If they wanted Super Joe to jump, they would have planned for a jump button.
Obviously, the NES Bionic Commando was a not port of an arcade game. It was an expansion of a new idea that didn't work just because there was the correct amount of buttons. NES Bionic Commando worked because it was a unique take on platforming during the age of platformers.
Italics.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
Looking forward to this game though.
I just recently got through playing it after having got it in the Steam sale.
They got the swing mechanic so right with the game, but the rest of the design just didn't work. The whole emphasis of the grappling arm is the freedom of motion it provides, how you can span entire city blocks, loop quickly around buildings, and hurl yourself into the sky at a moments notice.
But the levels were all tightly constrained corridors with random radiation pitfalls everywhere, and half the time you could never tell until it was too late. Enemies were just grunts on the ground, when you engaged them it wasn't a battle of free-flowing motion, it was just meh. The biomechs weren't much better, the closest things came to a fun fight were the polycraft.
Enemies should've been designed with the freedom of motion in mind, enemies that would dart around the space and use the surroundings, that you'd have to chase and manoeuvre as they did the same to you.
I say all this, because the multiplayer provides precisely this model, and it's such a shame that the singleplayer never followed suit because it feels so right. The multiplayer maps, whilst smaller, allow for free flowing flying motion everywhere. You don't need to worry about running into random radiation pitfalls, and things are spaced well to make the most of the grappling mechanic. Fighting other players with the same abilities you do turns into swooping dogfights as you pursue each other around and over massive building blocks, trying to give each other the slip or get the right angle on them. There's a gigantic emphasis on stringing your moves together and keeping your momentum flowing, because stopping or running for even a brief moment makes you vulnerable.
I only managed to play a few multiplayer games because the community's largely dead on the PC now (couldn't say what it's like on the consoles). But what I played were some of the most fun deathmatch games I've had in a long time. I usually hate deathmatch games and prefer more team oriented affairs, but the motion alone is almost pure joy, and gives the gameplay a real pacing and strategy that few match.
If there's ever a Bionic Commando 2, they need to have better level design. I can understand you can't have massive open world cities, but the radiation restrictions were often completely arbitrary (the top of this building's OK, the top of that one will kill you), and limited your motion in the worst way. What's worse is that the enemies you encountered didn't really encourage you to make the most of your swing mechanics since they were all stuck on the ground and didn't require any real motion to deal with.
It reminds me a lot of Oni. Some absolutely stellar gameplay mechanics, but they were held back by the other aspects of the game.
I played it a bit more the other day and accidently fell into some water while trying to get to a checkpoint. The water is a little higher than he is and he drowns in less than 5 seconds : (
For the type of game it is, it's all completely fitting.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Agreed, although unfortunately the first impressions the game gives off before it ramps up the action give people the cold shoulder apparently.
But they might not be the type of player for that type of game if that's the case.
There were plenty of other ways they could have handled it and the in game justification for it is rather stupid. That only reminds me how dumb taking away arm moves from you until a certain point in the game is not only jarring in the narrative but also a bad design choice.
Unless I've forgotten something major since I last played some of this a couple months ago, pretty much everything is grappleable.
Which is the point. The collectibles are the equivalent of the challenge rooms in Rearmed. As far as I'm concerned, the only issue with them is that they don't save at checkpoints.
Game does not pander to the player. Game is serious business. That is the best thing about it.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
These are serious design flaws and not part of any really challenge the game has to offer. For as much as I liked the game, dismissing this stuff is kind of absurd.
This. The game gives you an awesome swing mechanic that gives you amazing mobility, but it constantly feels as if you're restricted in that mobility. Want to swing up onto that building that's a little higher than the troops, and DFA? You can't, radiation. Want to swing around the corner and back the other side? Nope. I've even had a few deaths where I've been grappling onto things just fine, but because I literally hit the invisible "falling death" line whilst moving, the game ended right there without even so much as a radiation warning, Spencer just has a sudden heart attack and falls. Which is all the more bizarre when he can survive falling from a freaking plane.
The levels just weren't designed all that well, they were linear corridors that didn't allow you to make the most of that mobility. When the game opens up and allows you to play (say there's soldiers on a rooftop and you can circle round whichever way you want), then it works really well, but half the time you'd run into the cloud of death.
I can literally spend ten minutes simply swinging around empty multiplayer levels like Island or GrinHouse or 8-Bit. I like the swing mechanic that much. There's a simple joy to nailing the perfect swing, navigating the environment flawlessly and nabbing weapons without even touching the ground. But the SP campaign doesn't allow you to make the most of that freedom. When I'm having fun in empty multiplayer levels but not really in the SP campaign, I just feel something's gone wrong.
How about the Mohole fight? They dump you into the middle of a big empty car park where you can't do any real swinging at all, you're just flinging cars and running around / jumping.
Heck, the assault on the giant mech, where was the daring level where you scaled up its perilous moving legs? Instead you get dumped on there, and have to go to 3 points to disable, it, none those areas make real use of the motion either. Neither does the following boss fight with Groeder, that's just on a platform circular platform where you're jumping out of the way and then zip-kicking him. The final level is literally running down a long straight corridor (because you can't grapple the ceiling for some reason), followed by a series of QTE's for the final boss fight.
When it got to that part where he jumped into the waves of vultures, I actually thought that would make a really good ending piece, swinging from moving creatures, trying to reach the final boss. Instead everything's automated and you're just mashing buttons.
More than anything, Bionic Commando just hit me as really awesome mechanics that weren't used to the best of their ability, and often, not even to good effect. It says a lot that I've played through the game twice now(tried the harder difficulty to see if that improved things, just solidified what I already felt) , but the more I play the more I dislike what happened with it because I just get a better picture of how awesome it could have been. I really want a sequel, I know what happened with the final levels in particular must've mainly been down to time / resource constraints. I don't think they ever intended it to end like that.
Failing that, I wish somebody were still playing the multiplayer these days.
One article from ign shitting on the jump ability and one article from 1up that actually offers some actual impressions. I wont link the ign shit cause its generally uninformative.
1up says you can play the game without using the jump button, which is an interesting development, and also renders idiotic complaints irrelevant!
INSTAGRAM
Awesome!
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
http://www.capcom-unity.com/jgonzo/blog/2010/09/15/tgs_2010:_bionic_commando_rearmed_2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7KQiwHlO3k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFbJIzK0tbQ
I haven't seen these yet, so I assume they're new-ish.
It definitely looks interesting.
Also, are we sure you can turn off jump? Alot of the "puzzles" seem dependent on it.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
Website Design and Development
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2? It's not yet released.
It's planned for the first quarter of 2011.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
Get excited people.
INSTAGRAM