Bionic Commando demo due tomorrow

By Robert Purchese Published 28 April, 2009

Try out the multiplayer, but only on 360.

Capcom will release the multiplayer demo for Bionic Commando on Xbox Live Marketplace tomorrow.

The publisher kept us waiting until the last minute for a specific date, telling us a demo would arrive sometime in "the coming weeks". Capcom also said there are "no plans" to offer a similar demo on PS3.

The demo will include the Vertigo map, on which up to eight friends can swing around and try to kill each other. Of course, the inclusion of a bionic arm - the game's main attraction - mixes the regular Deathmatch formula up.

These are best illustrated by Tom Bramwell, who filmed himself getting to grips with the third-person action game for Eurogamer TV. Watch him struggle at first, before becoming competent and then rather adept, as is his way.

Bionic Commando launches for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 22nd May. Check out our hands-on impressions to see how the game's shaping up.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Ninja_Tino #1 3 years ago

    Would prefer a single player demo but we'll see.

  • Spanky #2 3 years ago

    I want a singleplayer demo, unless it's CoD i never want a multiplayer demo. Reason i never bought Army fo Two(other than the reviews) was that the demo was multiplayer only.

  • Darren #3 3 years ago

    Yuck, multiplayer games suck, I'd rather have a single player demo, ta.

  • menage #4 3 years ago

    Agree with the sentiment. It's nice to swing around a little and see how it feels though. But I frigging hate MP more and more. They're all the fucking same, deathmatch this, capture the flag that, how fucking dull, even with grappling hooks. Everybody plays it for a few weeks and then dump it for Halo or Gears again anyway.

  • Gearskin #5 3 years ago

    Darren has no friends.

    I smell awesome on this.

  • ZuluHero #6 3 years ago

    maybe it will surprise us.. im willing to give it the benifit of the doubt. After all Lost Planet was really good MP but sucked as a singleplayer game...

  • bratmandu #7 3 years ago

    I'll be interested to see if Capcom finally are able to make a non-2D game with decent controls.

    All their full 3D games have major control or camera issues - that's why I disliked all Resident Evils, and Lost Planet. Good games I'm sure, but I felt like I was maneuvering a bloody ocean liner in them.

    I love the Street Fighters and Megaman and lots of other Capcom games, but whoever is in charge of the design of the control schemes for their 3D games needs a kicking.

    That said, I'll be trying the Bionic Commando demo, to see if said designer got a kicking and learnt his lesson.
    Edited by 2 at 28/04/09 @ 12:30

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #8 3 years ago

    Basically, Bionic Commando is all about how well the swing mechanic works. A multiplayer demo sounds like a great way to jerk around with it and test it out, along with a random selection of friends and other random people.
    Edited by 1 at 28/04/09 @ 12:40

  • menage #9 3 years ago

    @Bratmandu

    DMC was allright in the controls dep, fixed camera was kinda annoying though indeed. Okami was freaking awesome though.
    Edited by 1 at 28/04/09 @ 12:40

  • bratmandu #10 3 years ago

    @ menage:

    Didn't get on well with DMC either - the cameras were horrible, and I think the controls only worked in it because you were easily drawn towards enemies, which requires less skill and is less fun than actually having to aim at them, but it is needed because of crap cameras :-P

  • Darren #11 3 years ago

    @GearSkin - It has nothing to do with how many (real) friends I have at all, I just don't like competitive games particularly, I find them dull and repetitive in the extreme. Since multiplayer games are competitive then it follows that I don't like them either. Similarly I have little interest in sports for the exact same reasons, most are just plain boring IMO.

    I don't mind co-op though but deathmatch-type games just drive me insane with their mind-numbing repetitiveness. Ten minutes is usually all I can stomach before I start to lose the will to live. Sorry but as a PC gamer I grew tired of multiplayer online games years ago as I've tried so many of them and they all seem similar after a while. I like my games to be story-driven with a beginning, middle and end. End of.

    Of course, I'm interested in Bionic Commando, it looks fun, but only for the single player.

  • menage #12 3 years ago

    @Darren

    I agree 100% with everything you said. Let's be friends and agree to never play together:D

  • Spanky #13 3 years ago

    My beef with MP isn't the same as Darrens, i dislike it because i will be entering a game to fart around in and learn controls thus possibly imposing my shitness on other players. It's not that i inherently dislike MP it's that i will be entering the game not even knowing how to play it.

  • kinky_mong #14 3 years ago

    People who don't like multiplayer games are weird and most likely are shit at them.

  • asphaltcowboy #15 3 years ago

    Yes! Very excited!

  • menage #16 3 years ago

    @Kinky Mong

    True and true, still, weird people are awesome.

  • Gearskin #17 3 years ago

    This just in. Darren as one friend.

  • Darren #18 3 years ago

    @kinky_mong - "People who don't like multiplayer games are weird..."

    We're probably less weird than those who do like them but that's just a matter of opinion... obviously. :p

    "... and most likely are shit at them.

    Well done, Sherlock. How long did it take you to figure out that if someone doesn't play games online then they're hardly going to be very good at them? ;)

  • creepylizard #19 3 years ago

    just thought I'd be another multiplayer hater to crawl out from under my personal rock. Notice how many people who like playing against other people online (ie almost everyone) feel so threatened by people who don't?

  • asphaltcowboy #20 3 years ago

    You lot are all weird. Clearly MP is the best way of getting people to try out the mechanics without giving away any of the story or having to deal with things like cutscenes, objectives and all that hoo-hah. It also gets you talking about the game with your mates, who you may well be playing with AND it's free Xbox Live Gold this weekend, isn't it?

    Would you rather have no demo at all?

  • menage #21 3 years ago

    "Clearly MP is the best way of getting people to try out the mechanics without giving away any of the story or having to deal with things like cutscenes, objectives and all that hoo-hah."

    Without story, knowing objectives, level design and stuff I'm not really interested in a game, so that might be the reason why we don't like MP demo's. And arena where you battle each other has nothing to do with pacing, level design for sp, difficulty, acting, etc. So I still know fuck all if I'll like the game or not.
    Edited by 2 at 28/04/09 @ 14:31

  • Darren #22 3 years ago

    I agree with menage on this one.While Bionic Commando does look a lot of fun in the various gameplay and developer walkthrough videos I've seen, the multiplayer demo won't allow me to sample any of the offline campaign stuff and play at my own pace so, no, I'm not interested in it at all. I'm pretty sure a single player demo will arrive eventually and until then I'm more than happy to wait.

    P.S. I already have the PC version pre-ordered anyway just on the strength of those videos.

  • Fodder #23 3 years ago

    You might be able to start a private server if you just want to mess around on your own.

    On the Bionic Commando podcast this week, they talked about the demo, and they said they went with multiplayer because in testing people picked up the controls more easily in multiplayer mode.

  • bratmandu #24 3 years ago

    @ asphaltcowboy

    "Clearly MP is the best way of getting people to try out the mechanics without giving away any of the story or having to deal with things like cutscenes, objectives and all that hoo-hah"

    It's a Capcom game - so the story is this:

    1. Go somewhere.

    2. Kill Some people.

    3. Will you solve the puzzle yes/no?

    4. Go somewhere else (possiby backtrack to same place as before).

    5. Kill end boss.

  • Darren #25 3 years ago

    @Fodder - I find that comment strange.

    Nearly every single player game I've played has had a tutorial from the start of the first level that gradually introduced me to the controls with on-screen prompts, at least all the *good* ones did. Most multiplayer games don't have this learning curve at all in my experience unless they have a forced tutorial like the Splinter Cell games did. So for the developers to suggest that people picked up the controls quicker in the multiplayer mode just sounds... well... wrong to me. :?

  • menage #26 3 years ago

    I can live without a press X to jump message though:p

    Most designers still threat us like morons who've never held a joypad.

  • Fodder #27 3 years ago

    I'd guess that the difference is that in single player you're going to be dutifully following tutorial instructions as and when they pop up, whereas in multiplayer you'll just try stuff for yourself and probably work it all out a lot quicker than you would from a tutorial. They seemed surprised at the results themselves, but they came from actually trying the game out on people and seeing how quickly they learned the controls.

  • mizcicz #28 3 years ago

    i will go crazy right now!!!!!!!!