Conker bonus DVD

By Tom Bramwell Published 30 March, 2005

Then the world!

Microsoft is offering a bonus DVD as a pre-order incentive for US Xbox owners who feel like buying Conker: Live and Reloaded when it finally pitches up this June, and apparently it's something the company is considering for Europe.

The bonus DVD features a "mockumentary" called "Conker - Where Is He Now?", which is a fair angle to take given his absence and continued delay since Microsoft bought Rare for £375 million a couple of years ago.

Also on board will be movies, four songs from the soundtrack and "video strategies", and since the bonus DVD is shipping prior to the game it also features a playable Conker demo. US retailer GameStop also says to expect multiplayer maps.

There are conflicting reports about what else is on the disc, but there'll be some mixture of trailers and demos of Forza Motorsport, Jade Empire and MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf.

Developed by Rare, Conker: Live and Reloaded is the game formerly known as Conker: Live and Uncut, and will be the bad-mouthed squirrel's first outing on the current generation of home consoles since his divisive introduction on the N64 - an introduction so divisive, in fact, that Nintendo left it to THQ to publish the game to help protect its family credentials.

However, this time out Rare is developing a team-based shooter focusing on Conker, rather than a platformy adventure, and aims to have competitive and Campaign modes playable via Xbox Live and System Link - retaining the innuendo and warped humour that populated the N64 original.

Microsoft UK is officially quoting a "summer" release date for Conker in Europe, but the expectation is that Euro gamers won't have to wait much longer than their American counterparts.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (30) Latest comment 7 years ago

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

  • Roamer #1 7 years ago

    Rare was certainly a great investment for Microsoft, I see :)

  • Blerk #2 7 years ago

    No doubt featuring similar 'wacky' and 'zany' humour as the title itself.

    Given Conker's level of comedy, shouldn't they have called it a "Boners DVD"?

  • Zero Beat #3 7 years ago

    bought Rare for £375 million & Rare was certainly a great investment for Microsoft, I see :)

    Do we really need to see these two comments every time Rare is mentioned?

  • Blerk #4 7 years ago

    Yes. Just to point out how over-rated they are.

  • Genji #5 7 years ago

    I'm speechless. How could a company that's produced so many quality games be brought down this far?

  • Zero Beat #6 7 years ago

    Their console output has been consistently excellent with only their GBA output letting them down, but even then it's only weaker not bad by any means. Very few people even know about their GBA output so I can hardly see how they're overrated.

  • skybluesam86 #7 7 years ago

    This is a straight port with a few extra multiplayer bits tacked on, isn't it?

    What a stellar investement!
    I was as shocked as most Nintendo fans were when Rare were sold, but now its looking increasingly like some of the best business I've ever seen.

    It's a genius game though. Absolutely brilliant. The multiplayer *still* gets played to this day.

    But, at the end of the day, it's still a slightly polished port of a five year old game. How many people are actually going to care?

    Oh, and a quick edit: any game that has a giant singing poo as a boss is ok in my book ;)
    Edited by 2 at 30/03/05 @ 13:41

  • Master Cheif #8 7 years ago

    All i want to see from Rare is the Next Perfect Dark on Xbox2 as long as the multiplayer is the same as the last one it will be ssoooooo fun

  • groovychainsaw #9 7 years ago

    Just out of interest, is anyone here actually planning to buy this game?
    I mean, when was the last time a team based shooter worked in third person online?

  • IronGiant #10 7 years ago

    Consistently excellent? In your opinion.

  • jumpdeveraux #11 7 years ago

    /awaits dismal sales figures

  • Royal Fool #12 7 years ago

    I'm not terribly excited about the multiplayer but if the singleplayer is polished enough and brought up to date I might consider playing that through again...

    Grabbed by the Ghoulies was actually not a bad game. How many here actually bothered to play it? None would be my guess...

  • Blerk #13 7 years ago

    Their console output has been consistently excellent

    Considering they've only released a single game since being bought by Microsoft I fail to see how you can call their output 'excellent'. None of their current-gen games (both of them!) have gained more than 'quite good' ratings. They've lost the plot, and Microsoft need to knock them into shape, pronto.

  • MikkyX #14 7 years ago

    We'd better get this over here as I'm sick to death of waiting for Conker to turn up. It's about a year overdue already :(

    Mind you, don't we end up having that rant at pretty much every Rare game there is?

  • Captain Fetid #15 7 years ago

    I still haven't finished Fur Fighters on my Dreamcast. Maybe after I'm done with that one, I'll consider Conker: Live & Reloaded.

  • Zero Beat #16 7 years ago

    Sky Blue Sam - no, it's not a straight port with a few extra multiplayer bits tacked on. The Multiplayer is as fleshed out as any game that's sold as a Multiplayer game ONLY, Unreal Championship for example.

    I mean, when was the last time a team based shooter worked in third person online?

    Err, Socom and Socom II?

    Consistently excellent? In your opinion.

    Yes, and as someone that loved their games on the N64 and I know I'm a very picky gamer, I think my opinion is at least as valid as anybody elses.

  • Genji #17 7 years ago

    "Because Nintendo aren't holding their hand?"

    I'm curious... just how much input did Nintendo have when Rare were making games for the SNES and the N64? Were they holding Rare's hand with Goldeneye? Perfect Dark? Blast Corps?

  • groovychainsaw #18 7 years ago

    Yeah, sorry, I meant xbox live, havent played socom - i just mean compared to playing something either as arcadey as halo or serious like ghost recon. Multiplayer cartoonish characters seems quite throwaway, unless they instill it with great tactical depth (which seems unlikely, given the source material)

  • IronGiant #19 7 years ago

    Of course your opinion is as valid as anyone else's but are you saying GBTG was excellent? It's not a bad game but a country mile away from being excellent.

  • Tricky #20 7 years ago

    I reckon I may well end up getting this - only played the original briefly on an emulator but it didn't seem that bad at all so the same game but spruced up for the Box with added multiplayer seems good to me; and I'm a huge fan of Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Two-ie - they had me glued to the N64 for days. Blast Corps wasn't half bad either.

    Yes, sure they haven't released much at all recently but I'm still prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt based on how much I've enjoyed their stuff previously.

  • The-Bodybuilder #21 7 years ago

    Bashing rare? what's next? a halo2 bashing?

    I can bet that the rare bashers will be the ones pre-ordering PD0 when they see it in E3.

  • Blerk #22 7 years ago

    Er... that'll be a 'no'.

  • Master Cheif #23 7 years ago

    i didnt particularily like Conker on the N64 but the cut-scene at the beginning was pure genius!

  • skybluesam86 #24 7 years ago

    Zero Beat - It's still essentially the same game though. As far as I can tell, all they're doing is beefing up the multiplayer a bit, and sticking it online.

    I still don't see how that's anything particularly groundbreaking, or anything that could take at least 2 years.

    I could understand it earlier. It would be an ideal flagship title to launch with Live!, but they've dallied so much that there's nothing to make it stand out from the crowd.

  • IronGiant #25 7 years ago

    Blimey PD0 definitely at E3, you got some inside info then?

    /won't be pre-ordering

  • Royal Fool #26 7 years ago

    Rare will be renamed "Perfect Dark Productions" at E3.

    News at eleven.

  • Zero Beat #27 7 years ago

    Sky Blue Sam - Call it beefing it up if you want but the Multiplayer portion is completely new. I think it's perfectly understandable that it's taken them over two years to produce a multiplayer game (most likely) better than something like Unreal Championship 2, with a completely original graphics engine, and completely updated the original single player game.

    New multiplayer screenshots by the way, from the new fansite kit:

    <a href=http://www.jeux-france.com/news9257_conker-live-a nd-reload.html>http://www.jeux-france.com/news9257_conker-live-a nd-reload.html</a>

  • CrunchinJelly #28 7 years ago

    /loads up Fur Fighters.

    /loads up Conker demo.

    /shrugs shoulders.

  • captain-future #29 7 years ago

    *cough* £375 million eeeh?

    Really? I thought is was more like 300m in good old USD?

    /searches for Conker N64 :-)

  • barnard666 #30 7 years ago

    I missed the N64 gamen as I was lost in my ps1 and then my dreamcast at the end of the n64's lifespan, I played the demo and thought it was excellent, I will definateley be getting it, and they way theyt initially anounced it was "a brand new multiplayer xbox live game, with the added bonus of the original conker remade for xbox"
    they havent simply ported it, if you compare them side by side, you'll see that they have rebuilt all the models and textures from scratch, so thats a pretty big job...
    btw I really hated grabbed by the ghoulies...but a friend assures me that I should give it another go as its good....not really sure I believe him!