Bionic Commando: Rearmed Reduced

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Bionic Commando

Hello, folks! Ben Judd, producer on Bionic Commando here. I’m fortunate the folks at the PlayStation.Blog have allowed me two golden opportunities to share some information with you here.

As some of you may already know, Bionic Commando will be released on May 19th for the PLAYSTATION 3. It’s one of the few big releases in May to feature a 20-plus-hour-long single-player campaign and several multiplayer modes. Oh yeah, it also has a really damn cool swing mechanic.

Speaking of the swing mechanic, it’s taken a VERY long time to make it into exactly what we wanted it to be. The game, for very obvious visual reasons, gets compared to Spider-man a lot. They both have a swing mechanic, but Bionic Commando plays very differently from Spider-man in that it uses a skill-based mechanic. Just as the name suggests, if you want to get better at the game, you need to increase your skill level.

There are a lot of games these that put you on auto-pilot straight to the end with very few deaths or real skill-based challenges. The thinking behind this strategy is that players nowadays don’t want to be frustrated and want to have their fun right away. Well, that’s good in theory, but some of the best and most memorable games I’ve played challenged you to overcome the obstacles set before you. There is a certain sense of gratification that only comes if you overcome a challenge yourself. And the harder the challenges, quite frankly, the more rewarding it feels to complete them. Now, I’m not a big fan of making a game artificially hard so that hard-core gamers have “bragging rights,” but there are some game mechanics that just aren’t going to be easy to pick up right away.

I remember the first time I tried to “roll a fireball” in Street Fighter II. It must have taken me 50 tries. But once I got it… boy, was it rewarding. I was able to hammer on a single “attack” button in other games but in the end, it was mastering the fireball in SFII that’s the memory I won’t forget.

BC Wallpaper


So for Bionic Commando, we choose to stay true to the game’s roots. We went with a skill-based swing mechanic that will take most players about 5-10 minutes to pick up. But, once you do, you will definitely feel the control. It was a risky choice not to go with “auto-pilot” methodology when it came to the game controls; that is certainly the trend in recent games. But, if you’ve ever played the original game, I think you’ll see that it too required some serious practice before you really ever “mastered” the swing mechanic.

Speaking of which, I have some great news to announce here. Starting today, for a single week, as a promotion for the new Bionic Commando game, we will be lowering the price of Bionic Commando: Rearmed on PSN to $4.99! THAT is a great deal. I remember when Phantasy Star 4 came out when I was a kid… it was 100 bucks! Nowadays you get games with additional modes, costumes, levels, and sounds for 1/20th the price. Heck, that’s less than the price of lunch at a lot of major restaurants… (and it has less transfats too!). BC:R is a great game, but don’t just take my word for, check out these great scores from around the internet.

Even if you aren’t a huge fan of 2D games, you really can’t go wrong for five bucks, so give it a shot. Additionally, don’t forget that Bionic Commando and Bionic Commando: Rearmed have some cross-operable content that unlocks, such as the classic Spencer skin (red hair and cool shades) right from the start if you own both on PS3. There are a couple of other really nice unlockables that are only accessible if you obtain key items in Rearmed and own Bionic Commando, so this is definitely a deal that a true swinger won’t want to pass up…

BC Wallpaper

OK. Enough of the used-car salesman pitching. Now for the bad news…

It was initially our goal to retro-program in trophies for BCR while we were working on them in the 3D version. Unfortunately, the clock ran out and we had to put all our resources on completing the 3D game. I know this comes as a disappointment to a lot of people and trust me, it’s incredibly disappointing to me as well, but rather than giving you a PR-coated response, I’d rather give it to you straight. It was a tough call but with limited resources and time, we had to cut this from the main production schedule in order to make the 3D game the best it could be. Again, personal apologies for not being able to come through with this one.

Thanks for your support and look forward to my final blog entry on 5/21.

Ben

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179 Comments

17 Author Replies

  • It was initially our goal to retro-program in trophies for BCR while we were working on them in the 3D version. Unfortunately, the clock ran out and we had to put all our resources on completing the 3D game. I know this comes as a disappointment to a lot of people and trust me, it’s incredibly disappointing to me as well, but rather than giving you a PR-coated response, I’d rather give it to you straight. It was a tough call but with limited resources and time, we had to cut this from the main production schedule in order to make the 3D game the best it could be. Again, personal apologies for not being able to come through with this one.

    In other words: NO TROPHIES EVER FOR BCR. How much clearer does it have to be? For $5, though I might have to pick this up.

  • I bought Rearmed the day it came out and held off on playing it all this time because trophies were supposed to be coming down the line.

    Good grief man. At least I’ll finally get to play it.

  • Yeah, you guys should give us a trophy patch. Since you’ve already started working on it, you may as well finish.

  • I was very disappointed with the multiplayer demo for Bionic Commando. The graphics were awful and the swinging mechanic was also awful. I urge everyone to think twice about buying Bionic Commando.

  • That and there are a lot of people who already bought it with a trophy patch in mind (including myself)… mind giving us a refund then?

  • By the way, this is my opinion on Capcom’s treatment of PS3 consumers vs. XBOX360 consumers:

    XBOX360: Grand Stables at the Kentucky Dirby.

    PS3: Dangling the carrot in front of horse, yet can’t quite reach it.

  • I dont think Ill be getting Bionic Commando.

    For a game with such a strange mechanic that could ruin the game or make it awesome I really needed a demo to seal the deal :(

    (oh and WTF is up with the BCR trophy patch)

  • Sad to hear about the trophies, but I’ll take a price cut over trophies any day of the week ^_^

  • To elaborate:

    XBOX360: Exclusive Multiplayer Demo of Bionic Commando.

    PS3: Exclusive Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 Demo. Local Multiplayer only!!? Really Capcom? Thanks for the support.

  • There’s no denying that trophies make a game more compelling, but how about you new special breed of gamers attempt playing games for fun?

    Just a suggestion.

    ps. Did Capcom really “promise” anything or was it one of those, “we’re looking into it” comments that people tend to take the wrong way?

    • Clinton,

      All I have to say is \”you da man\”.

      Thanks for the comment. I did in fact not use the word \”promise\” when mentioning trophies. It was the goal, and I have to take responsibility for not meeting that goal, but it was never a promise or it would have been priority one.

  • 1. Your multiplayer demo was FU**EN HORRIBLE!!!!!

    2. No trophy support means I will never play your game again and NEVER recommend it to any of my friends to try out either.

    3. YOUR GAME SUCKS based on my impressions of the demo. I will be downloading your game pirated off the internet cuz that’s about all you deserve.

  • I agree that we need a demo tho… The 360 has had it available for a while now!!!

  • 50% off in exchange for no trophies? Sold. I’m one of those few people who actually don’t care all that much for the whole trophy thing. I ACTUALLY bought the Ultimate Genesis Collection for to play for nostalgic reasons. (“gasp!” -Trophy whores)

  • Welcome to the PlayStation.Blog, Ben! Since it’s your first time, I won’t hassle you about not being John D, which I normally would do to anyone from Capcom who’s not John.

    As far as this game is concerned, think I’m going to pass. I loved BC:R, and that’s all I ever actually wanted. BC in 3D was never apart of my gameplan.

    Hope the game does well, though!

  • Can we expect a soundtrack release from this game? I would love to have the Bionic Commando music on my iPod!

    • There will be a soundtrack released in the near future. I personally jog to the music all the time so I know where you are coming from.

  • Well I’m definately not gunna buy this now, especially when I am sure that the achievements will work fine. PS3 owners apperently are not as important as 360 owners to Capcom with the RE5 demo and BC multiplayer demo both being xbox exclusives for some time, monster hunter 3 going wii on us, and now lost planet 2 being delayed on our platform. Thanks for the honesty, I enjoy BC:R alot and would pay full price over and over again for it but capcom has killed this longtime fanboy.

  • I remember not getting this because I was going to wait for the trophy patch, that never came. Glad you guys finally said something even though its a disappointment they couldn’t be added as sales would jump considerably.

    I might grab it for $5, I’m sure it’s a hell of a deal, but with everything having trophies nothing is compelling without them.

  • @44 You can’t really use Uncharted or KZ2 since both games were developed from the ground up for and only for the PS3, where as RE5 was being developed for 3 platforms and KZ2 was given a ridiculously large budget. As for Dead Space, the ps3 version is still worse than the 360 version.

    @59 Well if Capcom makes more off of the 360 than doesn’t it make sense to support that platform more?

  • A demo is what gets me to buy a game, I’ll past until a demo comes out for the PS3. No demo no purchase. Everyone else enjoy.

  • Capcom should be ashamed to come here to talk about Bionic Commando (both versions). After the lie about Bionic Commando Rearmed trophy support you released a demo for Bionic Commando only on Xbox Live and not on PSN…
    It’s easy (and also very very inexpensive) to say you’re sorry now, I hope no one will fall for that one. Patch BCR, put a BC demo on PSN and then we can start talking again!

  • do you plan to sell us a key to unlock the multiplayer mode on the disc again?

  • Just bought, downloaded and installed it. now im going to play it. Thanks for the heads up on the price drop, and the nice info on Bionic Commando

  • @68
    oh I certainly can use KZ2 and Uncharted, it didn’t make a difference on past generations why should it make a difference now. Capcom wants to shove cross platform drivel down our throats then they better make as good as the exclusives, plain and simple. Capcom built a shotty engine or purchased a shotty engine for the PS3 and give it very little attention to remedy it’s issues. The engine itself was designed to run on the PS3, just like KZ2 and Uncharted 2, yet they require a 6 gig install.

    This is just one issue, this entire blogs list of comments is pure indication of it.

    When it comes to Capcom games we are second class citizens to the X360 users. No patches for trophies, unnecessary installs after we’ve seen it is possible on PS3 to do without them, and delayed releases.

    As PS3 owners I think we should simply stop buying capcom games if this is how we’re going to be treated.

  • That is freeking sweet :D

  • I was going to wait an buy it once the trophies hit, and since they aren’t coming it’s a bit of a dissapointment. With the game being just 5 bucks though, I can’t pass it up, trophies or not.

  • Should have known there wouldn’t be trophies for BC:R. I Guess i shouldn’t have trusted official people saying it, what was i thinking…

  • @73
    I agree, if we the players don’t stand up now all developers will start to do this, they have are money so they don’t give a fu@k.

  • sucks that there’s no trophy support… but I’m glad you guys actually came out and said why not… unlike some people (*cough* Konami/MGS4 *cough*)

    I got BC:R at launch and loved it… but got to a spot that I dont know how to progress from and never touched it again. It’s after you beat first boss… ive went to all the rooms, tried everything. No clue how to progress the game.

  • I’d like to know why we got screwed on a demo for the new BC.

  • Ben Judd, I WANT YOU TO REPLY TO MY COMMENT. I’ve read the ps blog for a while but never posted, this is the first time, I’m usually just on the forums but I know I won’t get a reply there.

    I bought BCR on day 1 because I wanted to support a good game, but being promised trophies was also a strong reason behind my purchase. You say you had to focus time on getting the new release ready which I fully understand and support since many games are released without essentially being completed (Area 51, Legendary, Turning Point etc.) and it translates to a bad game. Like many people have commented, though, you now have all the time in the world to go back to BCR, which out of the two BC titles will probably be remembered more as the years go buy (if reviews are anything to go by for the 3D version). I want to take that thought even further and say that you SURE AS HELL SHOULDN’T RELEASE ANY DLC for the Bionic Commando 3D until you fulfill your promise to those of us that took your (developer’s) word as actually meaning something when we bought BCR originally.

    • Here is your answer carlosm71,

      I wish it was that easy. Trust me, as a gamer you guys never get all of the story. Sometimes the decisions developers make are infuriating. But there are politics, money concerns, stocks… lots of parts to the equation that you will never really be privy too.

      And that\’s the rub. No developer wants to piss off fans. We work 18 hour days sometimes, in an effort to make something the best that it can be so that gamers (like ourselves) are happy.

      I\’m not trying to make excuses because some of the choices I made along the way are my responsibility. I certainly could have handled the trophy situation better and probably shouldn\’t have even mentioned the possibility of us working on them but much to my inexperience, I got excited and wanted to make you guys happy. In the end though the lesson is, talk too much, too soon an you run the risk of making people mad.

      I\’m new at this and hopefully I\’ll get better. One thing is for sure, I certainly know just how important trophies are to you guys and for future games won\’t forget that.

  • PART 2:
    Although your straightforward and truthful answer is commendable, if you don’t have time to get trophies to BCR, you certainly shouldn’t have time to release DLC for the new release as that would take much more time and resources than a simple trophy patch. I was on the fence of whether or not I should purchase this new game considering how many blockbusters are coming out by the end of the year and this announcement helped me quickly make the decision not to, at least not until you fulfill the promise you made to the consumer. At this point I wouldn’t even consider buying it used at a much reduced price in a few months.

    I’ll wait for your reply.

  • God D#!$%^! I just bought Bionic Commando Rearmed for $10 like two weeks ago. lol, oh well it was still worth every penny.

  • OMG we didn’t get a sugar coated response for once?!

  • What a deal! You can count me in for a 5 dollar deposit. I had been meaning to buy this game for a while now, but I have been backloged with so many other games that I wanted to finish first. But you’ve given me all the motivation I need to buy now and play later. Thanks!

  • I have been buying Capcom games for at least 17 years. I am very disappointed by the lack of support towards PS fans.

    I think the past does not count anymore. What they care now is how they can handle all the money from M$.

    • Really? As one gamer to another, I think Capcom does multiplatform pretty well. Granted, you will NEVER please all single console owners because you can\’t really get every game on every console (at least not the way it should) but even before joining Capcom, I though they provided a variety of things on a large number of platforms. Especially in the digital space, we have a ton of content out there…

      But that is just the gamer in me talking and I own multiple systems.

  • While I do appreciate you being upfront and not sugar-coating things, this is terribly disappointing news. I’m sorry, but if Rearmed isn’t getting trophy support after all this time, then it isn’t worth buying, regardless of its sale price. And I’m certainly not going to purchase a different game (the Bionic Commando remake, in this instance), when you couldn’t even fulfill a simple promise on the first game. For all I know, certain promised features in Bionic COmmando may be notably absent.

  • Ugh… No trophies, no buy.

    I would hate to be that kind of person, but for there to be no demo, or trophies, I can’t justify the five dollars that you want me to spend.

  • eh ben, knowing that capcom seems to prefer the xbox 360 nowadays why should people who only have a ps3 support this game when they can support a game like infamous. Me i have both systems so it doesn’t matter. The MVC2 demo sucks, the replay option on the championship mode of Sf4 sucks, no trophies on BCR, Re-5 demo came out a week on the 360 then a week later on the ps3, and then capcom put out a demo of BC on the 360 but not thge ps3. Last Capcom game i bought was SF4 on both sytems, but after i noticed the favortism for the 360 i have not purchased another Capcom game. Everybody that reads this post pick up Infamous because SuckerPunch wont take your money and put that money to make demos and better dlc on another platform

  • Pff some people are whiners here, CAPCOM is a business they don’t really care whether they have any exclusive content etc, they want to make their games profitable.

    You think it’s easy to just include some trophies into a game… what’s the big deal, it will probably be 2 golds, 3 silvers and 5 bronzes… you can get it somewhere else.

    Stop whining and buy a good game which is cheap while you can.

  • Part 1:

    I bought Bionic Commando Rearmed as soon as I finished the demo and honestly it is one of my favourite games this gen. The thing that confuses me about this is that trophies seem to be quite a simple thing to implement.

    Perhaps there’s something I’m not quite seeing but as far as I can tell, you create icons, names, descriptions and then create a patch so that when certain events occur in game, a trophy is awarded. In fact the code is already there to an extent as you already have some in game awards so I guess all you would have to implement is the transfer of data from the game to the trophy software in order to activate each trophy.

    As I said I’m not fully informed, I don’t know the details of how trophies work but my explanation seems relatively logical.

    My only other thought is that perhaps this is related to your recent press release concerning the PSN/XBL submission process. I can’t quite figure out what other reason there could be to not release a trophy patch. They usually grab attention and probably increase sales numbers.

  • Part 2:

    Anyway sounds like the decision is already made. I do wish trophies were patched in though. It would give me another reason to play through the game again and perhaps spend more time attempting the more challenging feats in the game. As you say yourself the harder the challenge, the greater the feeling of accomplishment you feel once the challenge is overcome and having a trophy would make the feeling that much sweeter.

  • JOHN!

    How are the PSone classics coming? Any Breath of Fire action on the horizon? Hmmmm? :)

  • Humm my threesixty has a Bionic Commando MP demo and my PS3 dont…whats with that? Dont you want the MP to work right? Iam not into spiderman games and it looks weak so Iam gonna pass on this one.

  • Thanks for being real about the trophies not coming. Classy move.

  • Usual Capcom BS. Look at Age of Booty. Several of us have been on the capcom forums trying to get capcom to fix the game because the online system is totally messed up. At this point nothing has been fixed and it’s obvious they don’t even care because they haven’t even responded to us. This is just one more thing that capcom failed us on. This is why I didn’t buy Flock and why I most likely won’t be buying the new Bionic Commando.

  • DevilsHunter2007

    is there Trophy support for Bionic Commando Rearmed ?

  • No trophys for Street fighter turbo HD? No Trophys for bionic comando. How about in game music then. I play MGS4 alot so trophys don’t bother me that much but would like to see in game music for SFHD. Love my music and would rather have it any way!!!! Any way I look forward to playing The NEW BC!!!

  • So no trophies at all for BC:R? This makes me very unhappy. I wish you could trade in PSN titles. I’d get rid of BC:R and SSF2HDR(which I never even played) in a heartbeat. Glad I didn’t buy flock as well, cause I hear it’s awful. Concentrate on making the next sale rather than pleasing the customers you already got the money from under false pretenses. Thanks Capcom!

  • Sup

    John

    Just asking…How are the odds of dead Rising 1 coming to ps3?
    and please dont reply with the answers of the mods of the capcom forums ”why you care? you gonna get a better and big one with Dead Rising 2” I want to play the Dead Rising 1 first and I just want to know if I’m going to need to buy a xbox.

    if you reply thanks.

  • You capcom guys like money right?
    TROPHIES = BETTER SALES!!!!!!!!!! Not to mention you guys promised a patch. You cant tell your consumer base one thing and do another. It’s bad business and you just lost another sale from me.

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