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Capcom, Grin's Bionic Commando Sells A Meager 27K in U.S.

AgentOtaku said:
I agree, when I first heard snippets of Patton's VA ...I was worried. In the context of the final package though, I think it's good fun. You either like it or you don't.
They were going for tuff guy tongue n' cheek cheese and it worked for me

Cool, thanks. I'll still pick it up at some point, too much of a backlog right now.
 
AgentOtaku said:
How is it cheap?

I guess I shouldn't have put it that way. I spent some time away from the game and I guess lost touch with the swinging mechanic so when I went to the end of the game and was bombarded with those friggin' robots I kept dying.

I will say though, the challenges throughout the game is a really great idea and should be implemented more often in single player games.
 
I honestly think Capcom spent way too much time and effort on a game like this. After the initial coverage period, it just didn't seem like a winning formula like RE5, SFIV or Lost Planet. As someone who tries to follow most Capcom games even passively (checking out trailers and coverage), I never took interest in this one for some reason.
 
dark10x said:
It's a game that was almost great. They did a lot of things right, but there are too many technical and design problems in the game. They should stick to side scrolling (hopefully they get another shot at that).

The GRIN engine is a piece of shit, plain and simple. Poor framerates, god awful loading around every corner, massively constrained level designs, and other issues. The PC version should help somewhat, but it won't completely solve these issues. They did a poor job with the engine design.

Well one thing i've never had issues was the framerate. Never had any slowdown occur, even during boss battles with junk flying everywhere. Cant really comment on the rest though since the loading into other areas never bothered me.

EDIT: As for tearing, I didnt notice that much on the 360, but I was playing set to 1080p, so not sure if that had any effect.
 
FuttBuck said:
I guess I shouldn't have put it that way. I spent some time away from the game and I guess lost touch with the swinging mechanic so when I went to the end of the game and was bombarded with those friggin' robots I kept dying.

I will say though, the challenges throughout the game is a really great idea and should be implemented more often in single player games.

Ah okay then ...I know what you mean about not playing for a few days and being rusty with the swinging. I actually would boot up a LAN game to ...eh ....get back in the swing of things =P
 
Teknoman said:
Well one thing i've never had issues was the framerate. Never had any slowdown occur, even during boss battles with junk flying everywhere. Cant really comment on the rest though since the loading into other areas never bothered me.
The framerate isn't terrible, per se, it's simply unstable. It rises above 30 fps all the time yet still drops below and creates this very unpolished feel. The PS3 version doesn't have tearing, but it still isn't smooth while the 360 version has constant tearing yet still drops below 30 fps. Neither one is all that smooth in appearance. There are CONSTANT loading points and a loading screen at death. Whether or not it bothers you is matter of opinion, but that doesn't mean these problems do not exist.
 
I think sending out a multi-player demo instead of a single player demo to have been a mistake.

I liked the game,
But the flaws were true:
with the Radiation boundaries, story, lack of Game + after finishing the game and the obvious progress loss during death forcing you to repeat the collectibles, challenges after death and the impossiblity to get them in chapter only mode.

I love the swinging and action, but the flaws listed above are true to what the critics say

I personally would have proffered a more stylized look and story closer to ReArmed instead of this post-Apocalyptic serious, gritty, potty mouth story.
I would have added Game + feature a la DMC so you would keep you stuff on replay.
I would have made Chapter select carry over items won a la Resident Evil 4/5 so it wouldn't frustrate players when they missed a collectible or challange chance.
 
Remember this?

Ben Judd said:
We initially set up a small internal team to build out a PSP version of the game based on the Ultimate Ghosts ’n Goblins PSP game engine, but about three months into the planning stages, Inafune-san approached me and said, “I think this title needs to be a next-gen title…and we need to do it on three platforms.” Again, I thought I was going to pass out. To not only allow me a chance to create a Bionic Commando game but to also give me the chance to do it in style. It was either the bravest move ever...or the dumbest. But no matter how the cards fall, the project got rolling.

:lol :lol
 
gutter_trash said:
I think sending out a multi-player demo instead of a single player demo to have been a mistake.

I liked the game,
But the flaws were true:
with the Radiation boundaries, story, lack of Game + after finishing the game and the obvious progress loss during death forcing you to repeat the collectibles, challenges after death and the impossiblity to get them in chapter only mode.

I love the swinging and action, but the flaws listed above are true to what the critics say

Agreed on all accounts
 
Mike G.E.D. said:
cant say the game looked appealing whatsoever.
Have to agree.

I'll open my legs for pretty much anything from Capcom, but this just never grabbed my attention. After seeing it on the 1up show way back, it just didn't look that great.
 
In truth, it looked okay, but the game really had to nail 9/10 average scores for people to give enough of a fuck.

Videos made it look okay, but nothing more. I'm more buzzed for Lost Planet 2 in all honesty.
 
gutter_trash said:
lack of Game + after finishing the game and the obvious progress loss during death forcing you to repeat the collectibles, challenges after death and the impossiblity to get them in chapter only mode.

yeah that was no good.
 
Ben Judd am cry. :lol

I really had hopes for the game since Rearmed was so unabashedly bad-ass, but the more I saw, the more those hopes were dashed... And the end result? Well, meh. Such a shame to see such a great franchise fall on its face.
 
This has to be the biggest triple bomb like ever from a game developer. Didnt wanted only sell like 50k copies also?
 
Yeah, lack of new game plus was a major mistake. Any game, especially those with alot of in game challenges that dont really apply to the story (Infamous too), should give you the option of a new game plus to carry over some assets.
 
Hopefully the disparity in sales between Rearmed and the 3D version, coupled the interest in 2D titles at E3 (New Super Mario Bro Wii, Shadow Complex), will lead to a resurgence of the 2D platformer.
 
To be honest I never thought we'd ever get another bionic commando game after the nes one.

At least we got something right?
 
I was interested in the game but releasing a demo that I couldn't play just made me put it on the back burner and forget about it.
 
I LOVED the demo. I had so much fun. For some reason it just clicked with me.

Unfortunately the poor reviews and campaign footage killed any urge to purchase.
 
Rlan said:
Flock tanked too. Right now the economy of sales of Capcom titles is basically telling them "Established franchises only, and only from the Japanese teams" because despite their best efforts, nobody wants any of it.

For the record, I liked Commando 3 and 1942: Joint Strike.
Lost Planet and Dead Rising did quite well so I think Capcom are quite willing to try new franchises. But yeah, I think they might start to rely on their inhouse teams more, or other japanese developers (SF4 and Umbrella Chronicles was good for them).
 
Akia said:
We're all in agreement that the 360 audience really responds to demos. A great demo really works wonders and a bad demo hurts sales.

Would Capcom and Grin be better off if they just didn't release a demo?
Yeah, I think so. I've seen people on my list blind-buy a game that didn't have a demo out of sheer curiosity.

To paraphrase, "Better to not release a demo and have people suspect you're a bad game, than to release one and remove all doubt."
 
Demo: Not great.
Character: Not great.
Voice Acting/Story: Not great.
Swinging and General Combat/Movement: GREAT!
Multiplayer: SUPER AWESOME GREAT OMG!

I was hoping for a sequel without radiation, but dismal sales numbers look to make that a no-go. Sigh. :(
 
AgentOtaku said:
Hey let's be optomistic here ....besides, GRIN Sweden really loved the IP and you can tell alotta heart went into Rearmed and BC3D.

I hope Grin gets though this to make more download games.
For a long time I'v listened to the BC podcast and its a real shame that some retarded choices(A MP only demo set at night) have ruined what could have been a great run of games.


I cant see Grin being around in a year.
 
Wanted, Terminator: Salvation and now Bionic Commando. Any chance GRIN can survive so many failures in such a short time?
 
Akia said:
I bet there's a lot more pressure on the devs of Capcom's Dark Void now. Its up to them to bail out Capcom US western outsourcing strategy. Causalities so far being: Bionic Commando and Age of Booty.

What was wrong with Age of Booty? Or did it just not sell?
 
I think some franchises should just remain as they are. Bionic Commando could probably make an awesome 3D game, but doing it correctly would probably be a large undertaking.

I also don't really think it was the demo that messed it up. I personally didn't even know it was out until I saw it at Wal-Mart, and I'm on GAF all the time. It's also not an established franchise. All of that ends up working against it.
 
MechaX said:
Yeah, about 20 minutes with the full game at my local GameCrazy turned me off completely. I don't fathom how people could think that this game has the best swinging mechanics, as the "lurch" that he does at the end of each and every swing completely breaks your momentum and he gets glitched on objects like no one's business. I thought it was a far cry from Spider-Man 2, where the swinging mechanic was done so well that the rest of the game didn't even matter.

I also was not a fan of the "slightly stray off of this linear path into blue zone of death = dead" mechanic.

The swinging is physics based. You can end the swing whenever you want, but obviously if it's too late at some point you lose momentum, since you go back after having reached the highest peak of your forward swing (that's what swinging is about).

Actually that's one of the most satisfying things about swinging in this game, it feels awesome.
 
This is why there needs to be variable pricing in games. I would have totally bought this if it was $29.99, but $59.99? No dice.

Red Faction Guerilla should probably be $44.99, and it might get hammered hard for also being priced at $59.99, but I could also see them getting a lot of sales because theres nothing else out right now and it is a legitimately good multiplayer game.
 
HamPster PamPster said:
I was hyped and planning on getting it for the PC (since I don't have a 360/PS3) but all the small issues people had made me go back on that - just little things like if you get a collectable but die before the next save point you lose it

I ended up getting Spiderman Web of Shadows to scratch my swinging itch. I'll probably still pick this up down the road when the price drops or maybe in a steam weekend sale
Yeah I was initially planning on grabbing the PC version as well but at this point I wouldn't even be surprised if they didn't bother releasing it.
 
Lesson learned, Capcom. No demo, no buy. I doubt Rearmed would have sold half as well as it did if it didn't have a demo.
 
The Skater said:
Lesson learned, Capcom. No demo, no buy. I doubt Rearmed would have sold half as well as it did if it didn't have a demo.
That's not really a lesson learned. There has been convincing research done by companies like EEDAR and others showing that in many cases, demos end up harming a game's sales--most likely in more cases than when it helps. There isn't a concrete rule on demos for publishers to follow; it's really down to the case of each particular game.
 
Condolences, Ben Judd.

Sorry to say that I didn't buy it, either (yet). I'm on a limited budget, and the last game I bought full-price at launch was MGS4. I do plan to pick it up eventually, though. Long tail confirmed.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I rented Terminator: Salvation yesterday on free points from the video store. I played for 3 hours last night. I'm a little over two thirds of the way through the game, and I'm taking it slowly and playing on the Hard difficulty.

*shakes head* GRiN.

I was going to buy Bionic Commando day one. Then all the sketchy reviews came in. Then I was going to wait a little while. Then I found out about the in-game advertising and the fact that you couldn't replay any of the challenges or double back to get collectibles. Now I'll be picking it up for $10 used. It's gotten decent word of mouth in the GAF thread and elsewhere, but I've got plenty of better stuff to play.

Maybe you'll get lucky.

tabula-rasa-trash-300x224.jpg
 
This was a great game, but no one knew it was coming out. I talked to some friends about it and they didn't know. There was no publicity whatsoever. Capcom dropped the ball with the marketing.
 
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