Bionic Commando: Rearmed Impressions

So far, I've played about an hour of BC: Rearmed today, and I must say that it is everything that I have been expecting so far. Capcom has been on a roll with WOTB and 1942 and now BC: Rearmed takes the old-school formula to a new level. The game plays almost exactly like the old Bionic Commando only with some very smooth HD graphics and extra enhancements. For a downloadable title, the graphics look incredible! It's nearly just as hard as the original game in some spots but they have lowered the difficulty in some of the levels since I know that the original had more pitfalls than this one.

The bionic arm takes just as much technique to work with much like the original BC. I have this habit of panicking when I go to swing that still leads me to my death a bunch but I think I'm getting the hang of it more this time. This one has an optional tutorial level that teaches you the basics of the game along with some advanced techniques. The overhead encounters play out much like they did before and still provide a good break from the 2-D style platforming.

So far, each stage looks to have its own boss fight. The ones that I have gone through so far require a bit of thought instead of a complete action approach which helps to make each boss fight feel refreshing. I was stumped on the first boss for about 10 minutes until I realized the method in which to beat him. From what I've seen, the dialogue before a boss fight is very well handled - along with the character expressions in the drawings, Spencer's wiseass remarks make the conversations quite entertaining.

I'll probably be blasting my way through this one a bit more later tonight.

For those that want to see it in action, take a look at the IGN Video Review.

A Small Note on Reviews

I've been thinking this over for a while now, and I think I might just link to any review that I do from now on instead of posting it here. The posts for them really take up too much room.

You can find the links below the set of In-Depth guide links. I mainly review games for The Gamers' Temple, so just about all links will lead to their site. I might still post up my own reviews that I write from enjoyment for this site however.

When it comes to a review, it may seem funny, but I usually don't put that much value into another person's opinion on a game while scanning through one unless I've played the game myself - I'm not saying that I'm on some high horse and that I don't respect opinions but I like to try a game out for myself rather than make up my mind based on a review - so whenever I write a review myself, I try to take the reader on a semi-walkthrough of the game and provide some slight opinions here and there rather than persuade the reader one way or the other. At the end of a review, I lay out my full opinion, but I usually don't tell a person to just avoid a game, since I feel that some gamers might find interest in it, even if I didn't like it.

Alright, the review explanation wasn't really needed, but I decided to throw it out there anyway. Hopefully that made sense.

Resident Evil: Degeneration - New Trailer

New Resident Evil Degeneration trailer

High Quality screenshots

Release Dates:

JP: October 18, 2008
NA: TBA
EU: TBA

"Today at the San Diego Comic Con, fans were treated to the first footage from the Capcom / Sony Pictures Entertainment collaboration, Resident Evil: Degeneration. Making its theatrical debut this fall in Japan and coming to DVD and Blu-ray in North America later in 2008, this spectacular, all-CGI animated feature takes the zombie action to a whole new level with its ground-breaking visual effects and thrilling new storyline.

The "Umbrella Incident" that took place in Raccoon City ended with a missile attack ordered by the government intended to wipe out the deadly zombie virus. Following this catastrophe, the Umbrella Corporation's stock plummeted. This serious blow to the business giant resulted in its complete dissolution. Seven years later, at an airport somewhere in the United States, on an ordinary autumn afternoon, a zombie is unleashed. Now, in an airport beginning to fill with the undead, the horrific disaster is about to repeat itself... Claire Redfield, now a member of an NGO supporting victims of bioterrorism and medical disasters, happens to be in the airport while Leon S. Kennedy comes to the site on a mission to take care of the incident.

Paul Mercier and Alyson Court reprise their roles as Leona and Claire, respectively."

Source: IGN


A little late, but I've been having trouble 'resisting the call' for the past few days, so not much internet time here.

I sure do hope this is released around the same time in all regions. When it comes to these CG movies, I don't think it is fair when one area gets it way before another since it is always then distributed to the internet for download during that waiting period. It kind ruins the excitement for those of us that have to wait in that case. Kind of like with the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children release.

Since RE: Degeneration appears to be already dubbed in English much like the Japanese RE games, hopefully the other regions won't have too wait long.

Siren release and FAQ updates

As already mentioned in a post below, the full version of Siren: Blood Curse will be released in a few more hours in North America on the PlayStation store.

Full details from PlayStation.Blog

Been spot checking the PlayStation store throughout the day and Siren hasn't shown up yet. It will most likely appear around 5:00pm CST. I'm expecting one hell of a file size from this since it is actually like downloading a full PS3 game. I sure hope the game isn't extremely dark in some of the night areas like on some of the trailers - I'm a little worried about the game's appearance on my 27" SDTV that is nearly on the verge of death. The trailer on that blog page actually looks dark even on this 22" HD monitor of mine, so I know the dark appearance isn't all having to do with my SDTV.

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Anyway, in other news, both versions of the DMC4 guide are updated with a few new strategies for Dante and one comment about Nero's Red Queen Combo D thanks to FiOth and the Soul Calibur Achievement guide has now been finalized, I think.

I'm also considering posting up links to the MP3s from the DMC4 bonus disc, though I don't really know if I'd get in trouble for that or not from Capcom - I really doubt it, but you never know. The bonus disc isn't exactly freely available anymore.

The tracks from the bonus disc are:

"Sworn Through Swords"
"Into the Darkness"
"Shall Never Surrender"
"Lock and Load"
"Time Has Come"

"Time Has Come" is basically just the beginning of "Shall Never Surrender", so I might not even post that up. Posting them up would definitely eat up the bandwidth of the free account that I'll be using depending on the number of downloads so they won't be working all the time.

Poll #9 - Results

When playing an Xbox 360 game, how important are each game's Achievements to you?

Very important, I'm an Achievement whore! Achievement boosting FTW!
5 (5%)

I try to get as many as I can but I don't let my friends help me out. Either I get them fair and square or I just don't get them.
18 (18%)

I will try to get all of the Achievements for a game that I really like but I don't play a game just for Achievements.
23 (23%)

Achievements are not even a factor whenever I play an X360 game. If I get one then "Oh well... yay?"
18 (18%)

I don't have an Xbox 360, so it doesn't matter...
32 (33%)


Total Votes = 96

No Xbox 360? A PlayStation 3 or Wii perhaps, or no next-gen? I thought I'd have more achievement whores than that also with the achievement boosting threads that I see on GameFAQs. ;p In a way, choices two and three have about the same mind-set really... Should have just placed them together.

I'll have a new poll soon - can't think of a creative poll at the moment.

Biohazard Ø, PSN and Uncharted trophies

Biohazard Ø (Wii)

Back when Biohazard Ø was first announced for the Wii, I was a bit excited to try it. After hearing it was only to be released in Japan, I considered importing it but really the Wii Freeloader is a bit too unpredictable with how the newer versions of Wii system updates basically make it useless (from what I hear). Anyway, I ran across this review of the game just a few hours ago on IGN.

Biohazard Ø IGN review

I must say, I am very glad that I didn't try to import it now. I can't really believe that Capcom actually released it without any sort of improvements or motion controls. The whole purpose to buy a port on the Wii is usually for something different involving the Wii-mote and nunchuk setup (ie. motion controls), right? The fact that it is available on the GC and can be played with Wii backwards compatibility really makes this version nearly pointless in my eyes. Even though this doesn't concern me, since it is not being released outside Japan, I felt the need to rant a bit here.

PSN Gamercard

Last week, Sony announced on their site that you can now link your PSN account with your PlayStation Underground account and show off your Sony gamer card on your own site. I actually found that I have had a PlayStation Underground account since 1998 - had no idea. Well, anyway, here is what the gamercard looks like:



Notice the extremely bare and plain appearance. The "Resident Evil fantatic" portion is actually what I typed out on my "About Me" line under my profile - they only allow about 20 characters. The background and overall design of the card is not bad at all but they should really add what games you are playing, or maybe your current game, or trophies... something. Really I don't think the "About Me" portion even needs to be on there in the first place - I might just delete that off my profile for the time being, would make it look better. If you look really closely, you can see some grainyness around the words and pictures also. Also, if you happen to click on these gamercards (any user cards) you'll be taken to this page instead of a profile page. I suppose Sony hasn't readied the profile pages either.

Hopefully, Sony will touch these up a bit within the coming months. I don't really feel that they are a bad design, but the appearance is rather boring.

You can see what other gamers think of their PSN gamercards in this thread on PlayStation's official site.

Take a look at these third party cards that I made up after visiting that thread on Sony's site.





Now those look pretty awesome to me, especially that last one, though a bit too big for my site. The only main problem is that, being third party, they are not directly linked to your PSN account, so you have to update the details on them manually via the TripleTags site.

Uncharted Trophies

This portion is no rant and this is really nothing that big but Naughty Dog has announced that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune will be receiving a patch for unlockable PS3 trophies. Uncharted was a real enjoyable game for me, so I might go through it again eventually, though not right now.

Uncharted Trophies article

If anyone is interested, you can see what I thought of Uncharted in my full review.

Now (DMC4) if (DMC4) only (DMC4) a (DMC4) certain (DMC4) other (DMC4) game (DMC4) would (DMC4) follow.

Sign the DMC petition for trophies in my PS3 guide if you haven't. Come on, even Xbox 360 owners - PS3 people have love for you too, honestly.

Two Things - Siren Blood Curse Demo Guide and Ninja Gaiden II Move List

Siren: Blood Curse

I have a feeling that this game is not going to get much exposure partly because it is being released on PSN and partly because the fall games are going to be moving out soon. Regardless, it sure does appear to be one fantastic survival horror experience! Dare you to look.

The full game (all three episodes) is supposed to be released this Thursday (7/24) on PSN for either $14.99 each episode or $39.99 for the whole bundle.

You can find the release info here.

I spent about three days with this guide. One thing I love about having a demo to work with is that I can easily come up with the format for a full guide (if I go ahead with it). That step right there is sometimes the hardest part of starting.

Siren Blood Curse Demo Guide by Berserker

If the game pleases me enough then I will definitely continue ^that all the way since the game is very easy to write for with how involved I get.


Ninja Gaiden II

Back in June, I was working on a full guide for Ninja Gaiden II, but I was running into so many problems while working on it (no official enemy names, no area names) and MGS4 was released only a week after it, so that sort of ruined things. In all honesty, I don't feel that the main game really needs a walkthrough for strategies against normal enemies since you basically just have to learn your own strategies - this was another thing that I was struggling with while writing for it. To me, there are no clear cut ways to beat normal enemies like there were in DMC4. Now with bosses, that's different.

Anway, I decided to just copy and paste some of the information in my guide to make up a move list for all the weapons in the game for anyone that might want it. It's really nothing, but at least it beats throwing away some of the portions that I typed up.

Ninja Gaiden II Move List

Hopefully that will beat looking them up on the menu everytime you want to see them - I know that I get tired of having to do that.

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One more thing that is totally seperate from all of this and really deserves it's own post but I'm posting it here anyway so as not to spam the blog with posts today:

Resident Evil 5 will have a collector's edition on both PS3 and Xbox 360 and it is expected to be $89.99.

Full story

Notice how the article mentions a price yet no news whatsoever about the contents. I found that somewhat amusing.

Another interesting quote from that article:

Capcom is promising that it will be the "hardest and scariest" Resident Evil yet.

Let's hope so.