Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 Message Board

PSN's still down, three weeks and counting.

It's been three weeks since PlayStation Network went down, resulting in the compromising of 77 million registered accounts, the exposing of personal information, multiplayer becoming temporarily nonexistent and a chorus of criticism from consumers, commentators--even Congress.

Players haven't been the only ones affected by the downtime, however, with several developers telling me the nearly month-long hiatus is now impacting game making, scheduling and publishing. Frustrating has been rising.

Not helping matters, I'm told, has been an uncomfortably quiet Sony, with very few concrete answers on PSN's status for its partners.

Obviously, the downtime is most stressful for multiplayer games. There's are key differences between multiplayer games, however, as developers have the ability to bypass the login prompt. Games reliant on connecting through the friends list alone (i.e. no matchmaking) have been affected the most. Without an active friends list, there's no way to play and test.

No testing? GLaDOS would be most displeased.

Games able to dodge the friends list and join running servers (say, shooters) have been okay.

The PlayStation Store disappeared, too. Games that were relying, even partially, on PSN being online for release have had to rethink plans. Hamilton's Great Adventure, a quirky action game from Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 developer Fatshark, was supposed to launch on PSN and PC simultaneously.

"The PSN version will be announced at a later date due to circumstances we can’t control," said Fatshark in a release earlier this week.

Asked to elaborate, Fatshark public relations representative Gunnar Johansson explained:

"It’s a bit frustrating when the one and only store selling our game is closed, but we’ll be on the virtual shelf as soon as possible when PSN is up and running again," said Johansson. "The only thing is that we’d prefer to have the PSN and PC players getting the game at the same time, as no one wants to wait. But, this is the case now, and I guess we gotta roll with the punches. We’re talking with Sony almost on a daily basis, and they are being as helpful as they can be."

Progress is being made on rebooting PSN, though, as evidenced by astute users on the message board NeoGAF finding proof of recent updates on leaderboards for both Killzone 3 and LittleBigPlanet 2. PSN user named NanoNeya last played a Ghostbusters-themed LBP2 level 22 hours ago, as of this writing, which suggests some internal testing of public PSN servers is happening. That's something, right?

The relaunch of PSN will accompany updated firmware that will prompt users to reset their passwords.

Whether PSN comes back in any capacity this week, three weeks is long--too long. E3 is not very far away and many developers are working overtime to prepare demos to show press and retailers in LA.

"I've never been more grateful to only work on single player games," joked one developer I spoke to.

Platform: (PS3N,XBLM)

3 out of 5

When you fly over a level, you get control of a mounted gun that lays waste to anything that gets close.  Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 is the sequel to a game that was designed as a remake of an 8-bit classic. It probably would have been easy to just design more levels to fit those mechanics and pump it out on the heels of Rearmed, which seemed to be a pretty popular release. Instead, Capcom and Fatshark went the other way with it and modernized a lot of the mechanics, making for more nuanced control of your grappling arm and easier access to multiple weapons and abilities. One of those adjustments? You can jump now. Considering that "no jumping" was sort of a key feature of the previous game, you might think that hopping around ruins the feel and flavor of the whole thing. But that's not the problem with BCR2. It controls really well and swinging and jumping around the levels is great. It's the levels themselves, which feel really disjointed from each other, making it easy to forget why you're swinging around in the first place.

Going from Bionic Commando Rearmed to BCR2 takes some time, because the controls have been largely redesigned to allow you to jump. Also, you can start swinging from a standstill, retract or extend your arm at will, and the button that extends the arm also now releases it, preventing you from mashing the button as you fall in hopes of saving yourself from certain doom. While you'll probably hate it for the first 30 minutes or so, the control you have over your arm and how it's used is better here than it was in the past, and once you get the particulars of it down, you'll be swinging around as before, only touching the ground when you really feel like it.

You'll also have new abilities at your disposal in the form of active upgrades. These let you add electricity to your arm to shock enemies, or utilize a grenade launcher. There's a powerful uppercut that you can use to bowl barrels into the opposition. The catch is that all of these abilities are governed by a single, slow-to-fill meter, and though you can use any of the abilities anytime you like, you have to go into a sub-screen to equip a single ability. There are also passive upgrades, such as regenerating ammo or faster movement. Similar to the active upgrades, you have to select which passive upgrade you want to use at any given time, though you can swap them out at will on the sub-screen. The end result of all this sub-screen swapping is that I didn't really spend much time using the different abilities. Why bother pausing to select your hacking tool to freeze all of the robotic enemies for a few seconds when you can just swing past it all and keep moving?

You can opt to finish the game without jumping, if you like.  Like the previous game, BCR2 is broken up into areas, but it's a mostly linear progression that doesn't give you much reason to revisit earlier levels unless you're hell-bent on finding every single upgrade. Most of the levels are very straightforward in a "just get to the end" sort of way, though some are given a bit of variety with helicopter sequences that fly you over most of the level while you keep the chopper safe from a turret position. Your progression is broken up by a handful of boss fights, which are pattern-based and monotonous. The problem isn't that they rely on patterns, it's more that most of them play out slowly and Nathan "Rad" Spencer isn't terribly resilient. So you need to memorize the attack patterns and not screw them up and take damage as you wait for your opportunity to dish out some damage of your own. It doesn't help that some of these already-tired boss fights show up multiple times over the course of the game. Fighting a giant, metal gorilla sounds like a pretty awesome deal, but fighting the same one twice while making sure you're timing your jumps just so as to avoid its hands from hitting you is just straight-up boring.

It's a shame that the boss fights are weak, because most of the other action in BCR2 is at least as good as its predecessor. The weapons are decent, though I found myself sticking to the default weapon most of the time rather than worrying about the limited ammo on the rest of the guns. The levels get tough, but the game rarely feels unfair or too crazy. If you're looking for something extra, the game has a set of VR-style challenge rooms that are a lot rougher than anything you'll face in the main game, and these focus on the sort of precise swinging that you'll only be good at after sinking some hours into the game. Also, like the previous Rearmed, BCR2 has a local co-op mode. Players are forced to stick to the same screen, which puts a premium on actual cooperation, but feels too restricting to be much fun.

BCR2 looks nice and makes good use of its polygonal nature with some big, physics-y explosions that look really nice, and there's a good amount of variety to the looks of the different levels, taking you through prisons, sand temples, jungle settings, and so on. The soundtrack once again plants its flag firmly in the retro category, with new remixes of tracks from the original game. They're pretty good, but if I had to choose, I prefer the previous game's soundtrack.

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 controls well, but the game wrapped around those controls is only great in fits and starts. The additional abilities aren't as useful as they could have been and the game's boss fights are extreme momentum killers. When you're swinging and jumping around, it's grand. But BCR2 grinds to a halt too frequently, making parts of it more frustrating and disappointing than they needed to be.

Bionic Commando Rearmed, released in 2008, is a very special game. It took an already excellent NES classic and expertly updated it with modern pleasantries. The swinging mechanics and lack of ability ...

#ps3 For some, the inclusion of DRM - "digital rights management" which prevents copying - is a provocative act. That makes requiring an online check-in for a game with no online component, like Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2, both perplexing and obnoxious. More »

Should you give this renegade sequel the benefit of the doubt? Find out in our official Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 review.

When Capcom apologized for including anti-sharing DRM in its PSN release of Final Fight: Double Impact, it wasn't because it had a change of heart on the technology - which required players to be signed into PlayStation Network to play the game - but rather because it failed to alert users to its presence.

With yesterday's release of Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 on PSN, the Big C made sure to remedy that shortcoming with the follow notice on the game's listing: "NOTE: You must log-in to the PlayStation Network each time to play the game." While Final Fight: Double Impact could at least boast an online cooperative element (in both its Final Fight and Magic Sword offerings!), Rearmed 2's co-op is an adamantly offline-only affair, like its predecessor. If you've got a religious objection to digital rights management (or a shaky internet connection!) consider yourself warned.

[Thanks, Chris]

He was the first of his kind: Nathan Spencer. Now he's been reactivated and rearmed... again!

It might be tempting to believe that the unprecedented addition of a jump button is the defining feature of Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. Having completed the game, I can assure you that jumping neither makes nor breaks Rearmed 2 at all. In fact, given all the hoopla surrounding Nathan "Rad" Spencer's newfound ability to reach new heights through muscular effort, it's ironic that Rearmed 2 consistently falls short of its predecessor.

You've killed the cronies--now take out the boss.

Blast through the mines of Agramonte in this gameplay.

You won't have to wait long to find out whether jumping was a sensible addition to Bionic Commando. As one of its CES announcements, Capcom has revealed that Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, the downloadable sequel that also adds a jaunty moustache, will be released for PSN on Tuesday, February 1 for $15, with the XBLA version following a day later for the same price (1200 Microsoft Points).

Check out our gallery for new gameplay shots, plus a look at some new Challenge Rooms and the moustachetic box art. Nathan "Rad" Spencer looks pretty thrilled about his game, at least!

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 hits the PS3 on Feb. 1 and the Xbox 360 on Feb. 2. It will cost $15 for the PS3 and 1200 Microsoft Points on the 360. More »

The notoriously challenging franchise is about to get a whole lot easier.

#clips Gametrailers got a three-minute look at Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 due early next year from Capcom. Packed with gameplay, fans should get a good idea of the game's innovative new features which, of course, include jumping. More »

#clips This is how you bring down the Megacopter in Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 - hang on its undercarriage, blast away at the engines and then - jump on a plunger so it shits out a clown car? More »

In the latest Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 media, Nathan "Rad" Spencer takes on the Megacopter, a big vehicle with kind-of-convenient areas to grab with a bionic arm. Well, it's convenient until the jets turn on, anyway. Check out video footage after the break.

Capcom also officially announced the "retro" difficulty for Fatshark's side-scrolling sequel (first revealed earlier this week by MTV), which removes the new, and controversial, jumping ability. That should satisfy Bionic Commando purists: not only can you play through the game without jumping (and without the option to jump) -- since the levels are designed with the knowledge that players can jump, though not in a way that forces them to jump, they'll be even harder.

#capcom First we told you the new Bionic Commando side-scroller adds jumping. Then we praised the jumping. Today, we add: But you don't have to jump. More »

With TGS humming along, Capcom has released some brand new media for Fatshark's Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. We've got two new gameplay videos along with a handful of screenshots, all featuring the newly mustachioed Nathan Spencer at his swinging best. Check 'em out after the break.

#screens Bionick Commando Rearmed 2 comes to us with some pretty nifty upgrades, namely a mustache and the ability to jump. More »

Get back in the swing of things.

So far, I'm not really sure I like Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. Some context: I'm a huge fan of both the original Bionic Commando and its 2008 remake, Bionic Commando Rearmed. They're two of the cleverest, most challenging games around, a real treat for someone that's been playing games for nigh on twenty years.

So why am I unsure of Rearmed 2? Because Fatshark had the audacity to change things -- and if you're a cranky old codger like me, you might be resistant. The rest of you, however, will probably welcome the game with open (bionic) arms.

Test those new jumping skills.

You can jump in Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. We know: Weird. You want to know why? So did we, so we caught up with producer Rey Jimenez. We also asked him the second most pressing question: Is wife arm making a comeback?

Radd Spencer is back and he's jumping for joy.

#movingonup Capcom's recent announcement of the addition of jumping to Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 got us thinking about classic video game characters whose lives have been changed by the addition of brand new moves. Here's a few of the stand-outs. More »

#captivate2010 Due out early next year, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 gives the famously flat-footed, bionic-armed Nathan Spencer the ability to jump. More »

Capcom's popular platforming franchise is swinging back into action.

Reengineered to jump.