Be Excellent To Each Other

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games ... 2434307dd/

This is the FPS new game, nothing to do with the 2d remake from a few months back. It's a free multiplayer demo with 10 player support.

I've been interested in this for a while. Buzz from the journalists given early playtests are that, whilst the controls take some adjusting to, using your arm to swing around rooftops killing people is wicked fun.

Edit -- here is the Eurogamer preview.

The rllmuk impressions that I read weren't very positive, but one of my twitter chums absolutely loves it to death.

So, worth a try for free, I suppose.

Grin's amazing port of the original has made me really excited by this. They really, really understand what makes a game tick.

HOWEVER! Apparently the multiplayer was put together by a group of modders, whilst Grin focused on the single player.

So it's the single player that excites me.

Had a quick go on this though, just to try out teh swim mechanics. It seems tight. And nice.

V.v. hopeful.

It's going to be a marmite game, I think.

My 360 needs WOL. The wife isn't there

No it's not.

I'm really looking forward to this, though; I can see the single-player game being inventive and tight. I hope they do another 2D one, too. Perhaps a remake of the original arcade game, this time? To make it good?

Heh. Wife On Line.

Tried the demo this morning. Really weird decision to throw you into a multiplayer game without a single player demo first to tech you the controls. Got a few kills, but didn't really enjoy it.

Me neither. I couldn't really get the hang of the swinging.

It's a terrible demo. To have a game with such hard to fathom controls dump you into a multiplayer match without even showing you the buttons is a silly move that will put a lot of people off.

I persevered, and more through luck than judgment pulled off some nifty moves -- swinging from one building to another, jumping on top, arm grabbing a guy, and punching him to death. There could be a great game in here, it's hard to tell. The demo will do more harm than good, I think.

I - shock! - went into the help screen and looked at the controls before playing. Also, it lets you see them on the loading screen.

So did I, but I couldn't remember them all. And the doodad on the loading screen only shows you them one at a time, presumably to avoid this factor.

I couldn't see a friends-only match option either, the panel on the left that controls that seemed to be permanently greyed out.

I've been waiting for this title for a while now - so much so I've burnt away most of the last week trying to finish the insane all-Challenge Rooms achievement from BC:Rearmed in preparation

On the day of the demo release I only got a few games in before the server seemed to be having trouble ~10pm? In the 1st game (5 minute match) I went from barely surviving more than 10s a pop to romping home with a win in the last minute when I found that deadly sniper rifle that works like a zoomable version of Goldeneye's Golden Gun with 1 shot kills. Now I'm worried that an uber-powerful weapon might trump all the fancy acrobatics the game is supposed to built around.

On ep37 of their podcast ( http://www.bioniccommando.com/en/podcasts ) they explain that the multiplayer was the best choice for a demo as it would force us players to experiment more wildly with the swing-mechanics in a dog-fight sense. But I reckon they've missed a trick by just giving us a night map where the swing-able scenery and sense of space is possibly not so obvious. Maybe they just wanted to show off the rifle laser sight?

You're meant to be able to radically change direction of the next swing by turning your head with the d-pad whilst your momentum from the previous swing is sending you elsewhere - so badly want to try this out, but keep getting shot cos I'm stuck in a deathmatch.

Has nobody actually picked this up?

I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. It's a fun concept with great potential, and it's loads of fun at times. Others, though, have started getting me annoyed pretty quickly.

Falling into any sort of water is almost guaranteed death, unless you're close enough to any object and can use your arm to pull yourself to safety, else you die quite quickly after being weighed down by your bionics. If you die, you're reverted back to wherever the game bothered to save last (you have no control over this), which obviously wipes any of the challenges you've completed or the collectibles you've, erm, collected.

You're constrained to the playable area by invisible radiation. If the icon appears on your screen, you better turn around, or you're going to die within a few seconds and sent back to that dreaded wherever-the-game-saved-last point. Unfortunately, if you're swinging or climbing, which you tend to be doing a lot, and the icon flashes up, chances are you don't have any time whatsoever to correct your course and get the hell out of there. Game over.

Swinging about is absolutely great fun, mind, as long as you pay attention and release your arm at the optimal time for forward momentum. You can get anywhere with a bit of planning, as long as you don't meet the dreaded radiation, of course.

Combat is a bit hit and miss so far. All I seem to be able to do is zip-line over to the foes using my arm, giving them a hefty kick. Or I can punch them a bit if I get close. Or I can use the incredibly-boring-so-far weapons to take them out. I've just unlocked the ability to punch large objects into the air, jump, then send them hurtling towards enemies, which has made things a bit more fun. I suspect I'll unlock a lot more in time to come, as I'm barely past the surface yet.

I will persevere.

Yes! I picked this up at launch, despite the dodgy demo

I totally agree with the radiation-borders criticisms for the campaign. It's a bit disappointing to be held back from open exploration of the pretty environments by (deadly) almost invisible barriers (should radiation be blue btw?).

Not too worried about the weapons though cos the most important one is the arm... and I love the silly multiplayer:

The demo used the worst of the 16 multiplayer maps, by far. With one other exception (a radioactive pit fight map under a collapsed skyscraper) I've really enjoyed the others for encouraging the tarzanry.

Importantly, using the arm attacks on other players is rewarding. The zip-kick 50% kills an opponent and sends them into space (encouraging more swinging from them if they dont want to get shot up). You can grapple bonuses away from those who try to run up to them (swing there, fool!). Swinging backwards over a pursuing player then power-diving them It's borderline dog-fighting. You can even swing from other mid-air players.

This is the free skin code from BC:Rearmed - use it and they even represent the difference in the cutscenes (apparently).

u d l r X B A u r Y u d l r X B A u l r X Y start

This arrived today. Just spent an hour with it and it's bloody awful so far.

It gets better, fortunately, as you get more comfortable with the swinging mechanism and controls, as well we unlocking new abilities. Why the game insists on overloading you with tutorials right at the start for abilities you won't unlock for some time, I'll never know.

I'm about 60% through it at the moment, and it's fairly enjoyable but nothing amazing.

The swinging is completely unnatural and choppy due to that lunge he does at the end of each one. Spiderman 3 had a much better swinging response.

Fair point. I think Grin have tried to carry the feel of the swinging from the original platformer for the fans, and it's not for everyone's tastes.

I've been getting on with it fine as I've spent an obscene amount of time trying to beat BC:Rearmed and the swing timing sweet spots are identical. Almost finished it so learnt this with mixed emotions:

http://www.capcom-unity.com/jimmyrey/bl ... ontrollers

Getting used to the stupid jolty swinging now. In the industrial sector, 20 minutes into the level. I miss one latch on point and go falling into the STUPID FUCKING FLOOD WATER OF DEATH and drown within seconds. Bastard game puts me all the way back at the start of the level... doesn't even save the sodding collectibles I'd gathered either. Bastard game.

Hmm, this does not sound like a game my low patience could stand. I've been playing Spider-man Web of Shadows which has perfectly acceptable swinging, especially for 12 quid from Tesco's.

Back to Dead Rising it is, then.

First you're introduced to the STUPID FUCKING RADIATION OF DEATH in the early levels, which effectively hems you in to narrow corridors with insta-death invisible bits at the side, then later on you get STUPID FUCKING FLOOD WATER OF DEATH covering the ground, which'll kill you in about 5-10 seconds if you fall in.

Yep. You seem to get rid of both in the middle of the game though, fortunately. I don't know what the end is like.

Does BC himself stop being a whiney sarcastic teenage twat by then too?

No. Leopard spots.

Gooeysex is sending me this.

It will no doubt be a massive dissapointment after the brilliant XBLA game. But hey ho.

Think I'll give this one a miss. What's Prototype like? I've got inFamous on the way for PS3 - managed to get it for £20 from some guy on another forum.

You can imput a code from the XBLA game to make him look all eighties and awesome. I'm going to do that.

Hopefully that will help.

Don't know. Part of me really wants it, given how good Infamous and Crackdown were. But things like the casual eating of innocents and crap, cheap boss fights put me off.

Pretty good so far. I'm not enjoying it as much as Crackdown, but it's still great fun. Bollocks hard at points, mind.

Well well well...

Could have been a superb game this, but the swinging feels broken. In a game where swinging about is the main event it's unbelievable how they've let this out the way it is.

It's not completely hateful but the restarts and loading after missing a ledge, stumbling into a radioactive area or my new fave ballache, falling into water, do grind you down.

The crumbling city looks stunning and when the grabbing and swinging strings along it feels great.

The main character is a hateful prick who talks like a stroppy teenager. Devs, there is no need for this.

Why didn't you give us a 3d version of the glorious original? Kept it cartoony with a sense of fun? This feels like it got pulled apart in a marketing meeting and put back together by Jocks (not the Wullie type either).

I'll keep playing for now, but I'm not happy.

Turned this off in disgust last night.

The section where you get the sniper rifle and there's a Shield Mech* on a broken bridge was just far too twatty for my mood last night.

Where the fuck did my shotgun go btw?

Urgh! Hnngh!

*Is there a cheap way of killing these other than 'death from above' and smack them when they're down x 10?

I liked this game. Couldn't really quantify why either. It did a lot of things wrong but I guess the combat and the swinging felt right. Bollocks hard at times though. I certainly wasn't going to attempt it on anything other than normal.

I can't gather up the strength to return to this game. Think I'll play through Il-2 first and see how I feel.

I couldn't be arsed, either. So I sold it, and don't regret that decision in the slightest. The potential was so high, but the result was boring and frustrating.

Thanks for the final nail Malabar. May as well sling it towards ODST or something.

You mean… that was our last fuck?

We will always have Paris...

Careful - it gets a little to hot for smearing on the naughty bits.

So he's just burnt his nubbin off? Phew, I thought I'd been gaped beyond my muscles elasticity!

ODST = awesomes.

I'll look at my pile of shit games and make the necessary arrangements.

So, I am playing this at the moment. Firstly, I like it.
There, said it.
Secondly, I am fighting a big gomming wormy thing, and I die during the battle. So replay, only the speech has changed slightly

Take 1:
SJ: Spencer, there's no way out, you'll just have to fight it
NS: My pleasure

Take 2
SJ: Spencer, there's no way out, you'll just have to fuck it
NS: Errmmm?

I'm with Bobbyaro... I thought Bionic Commando was great.

I seem to remember the speeches changing when I died too... and I died a lot!

I would be annoyed with you... if only your Dimlie wasn't so awesome looking!

It was unforgiving tripe.

Which lived up to the unforgiving original. It is a platformer, that is what they are like. Fall off a cliff in mario, you get killed, no difference here. The story is not exactly brilliant, and the enemies a bit dumb, but it is good fun, and well worth £5! It looks good, and the swinging mechanics are very good, not perfect, but it is still great fun when you get a perfect swing out from a huge drop.

Fair comment, apart from when you consider the invisible sky radiation ceiling. Mixed with the clunky controls, the incredibly short window you were given to get out of said radiation before dying, and the PHYSICS of generally being still climbing in altitude when you hit the ceiling made it unforgivably tediously frustrating for me.