##### Capcom and ##### Digital Media

[TheRedPriest]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/846/846125p1.html

New 2D Bionic Commando remake.  Download only.

Looks damn good.  Keeping what made the NES game epic, but expanding in ways that don't ##### it up.

The ONLY saving grace is that it's on PS3 and 360, so in theory I might be able to play it since I'll never own a 360.

But I still absolutely hate this digital distribution #####.  Hard drive fails?  Bye bye games.  Want to take it over to a friends to play?  Have fun lugging your own console.  Want to enjoy your collection?  You'll have to turn on your tv and go screen by screen.

/rant

[ASR]

At least with 360 you can remove the hard drive, and they sell Memory Cards. I dunno' anything about PS3.

However, this looks great, I have a few points left over, I might finally spend them.

EDIT: Just watched the trailer, and a rush of nostalgia overcame me. Definitely spending the points. Bionic Commando was one of the only non-Mario and non-MegaMan games that I was actually given to play when I first borrowed my friend's NES as a kid.

[TheRedPriest]

At least with 360 you can remove the hard drive

Hard drives are not designed to be tossed in a back pack and thrown around like a CD/DVD in it's case.

and they sell Memory Cards.

Nothing to do with downloading the game and playing it at other people's house.

[ASR]

Can you not put the games on the Memory Cards for storage? Lame.
Regardless of whether or not they were designed for being tossed around for travel, removable hard drives sure beat carrying the whole console around if you ever need to.

Not saying I support it, but at least it's an alternative.

[Voulnet]

Now THAT is a way to bring back a 2D game.

[ASR]

I got all excited and thought it was already in the arcade. Is it? I have to manually connect my 360 to my LAN cable whenever I want to go online, which is rarely, and it's a hassle unless I actually have a good reason.

This merits a good reason.

[Voulnet]

I can sense the happiness in Rez' heart of hearts that this game was not remade as a First Person Shooter.

[Kamon]

They should have put this on the PSP or something instead of download only.

When I first heard about this, I thought it was gonna end up being messed with like MHX. I still have that same feeling.

[ChaosVortex]

To be honest, I didn't care for Bionic Commando, although I've never played it. Never got a chance to.

But this does look like fun.

I did hear about this during the summer last year while MMM was down, along with their Street Fighter 4 production.

[Abominator]

It looks good, particularly the co-op, but it'll never be as good as the NES game (which is not "the original" as everyone on the sites keep calling it, because arcade BC was mediocre at best).

Anyway:

Hard drive fails?  Bye bye games.

Incorrect, since it can be re-downloaded in a jiffy, since all XBLA games are weensy and it remembers what you've bought.

Want to take it over to a friends to play?  Have fun lugging your own console.

Incorrect, since it can be downloaded there in a jiffy, since all XBLA games are weensy and it remembers what you've bought.

To be honest, I didn't care for Bionic Commando, although I've never played it.

That's the stupidest thing I've read in a while.

[ChaosVortex]

Don't see how it's stupid. I never really cared to play it, but never got a chance to anyway.

[Captain Sanoguchi]

To be honest, I didn't care for Bionic Commando, although I've never played it. Never got a .

Dude, don't talk down on the game that has 4 frames of Hitler's head exploding.

[ChaosVortex]

I didn't speak bad about it at all, Cap'n. I just said I never had the intention to play it, for whatever reason I cannot remember. Probably dumb.

I might've liked it, might've not. This new one looks pretty fun though.

[ASR]

Grah, I'm excited now. When's the release date? I can't seem to find any exact numbers.

[TheRedPriest]

Incorrect, since it can be re-downloaded in a jiffy, since all XBLA games are weensy and it remembers what you've bought.

So in 5, 10 or 15+ years when these networks no longer exist I can still download the game when my 10th HD has failed?  I think not.  What if I don't have an internet connection for an extended period?  This is not a solution or alternative to physical media.

Incorrect, since it can be downloaded there in a jiffy, since all XBLA games are weensy and it remembers what you've bought.

So you can download it to any 360 even if it's not yours as long as you've paid for it once?  Or conversely if you log into your "gamer tag" on a friends xbox and download it does it stay on his 360's hard drive when you log off and he logs on?  Either way I don't see how that doesn't just stop you from dumping it on a memory card and just playing it on any xbox, ie just download it off the net and play it.  Same reason I can't just load roms I get from the net onto my wii memory card and put them on virtual console.  And it's still a further unnecessary step to access the internet to redownload a game vs just putting the disc in the thing and playing it.

[ASR]

There's finally something I strongly agree with you on, Rez!

[Mikero]

Personally I hate media that isn't tangible. It's not being like an old person who thinks the answering services you can get are a scam because you don't need to have a physical machine, it just doesn't seem right. Like how you can download comics from Marvel.com and stuff. Like one fridge magnet and it's all gone. Not my cup of camomile.

[ASR]

I love owning things. I mean, from time to time I'll watch a pirated movie or TV show, but at any given moment I'd rather phsyically own the DVD.

Even those legal "DOWNLOAD NOW!" digital media/games from iTunes or Valve's Steam are sketchy for me - I just like having the security of the actual object. I bought Half-Life 2 on Steam years ago, and just recently I bought it again in The Orange Box, and I only did it because I realized I'm still willing to shell out a bit of my money to own it on a disc. It was the first 360 game I'd bought in over a year at the time, so that's really saying something that I'd buy a game I already own digitally, despite the fact that it was packaged with extras and Portal.

I bought Season 1 of LOST on iTunes when the TV service first came out - big mistake. I'd kill to trade those files in for the actual DVD box sets. Though, with the exception of Doctor Who, I normally stick to comedies only when it comes to buying TV show collections. Get the most out of your money.

The only form of media that I find acceptable on a digital level is music, but that's only because it's worked out so well universally. iTunes is brilliant, and even I used to be a critic of that. I thought iPods would fail because I was still so into my CD's and my snazzy iRiver CD player and all that jazz.
With all the MP3-players and truly secure support for digital music, I've got no problem with it. It's 100% mainstream and it's being done right, so I've converted with no more than a small shake of the head.

I just can't deal with movies, TV shows, and especially games.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the Virtual Console and XBOX Live Arcade, but I hate the digital storage. I hate it so much.
I'm just not so hot on calling up Nintendo and trying to explain to them why I need all my VC purchases transferred to another Wii console and how I can't particularly find the serial number at the moment and could they politely ##### off while I happily sort my tangibly showcased Wii games in their colorful cases on the shelf.

[Mikero]

I like to buy CDs. Naturally I don't buy individual songs but I like to buy the CD if I want it rather than... other stuff. It's just... Right. And I don't buy digital media CDs either. That's crap. I just import my CDs to iTunes after buying them and then I can (if the lyrics aren't too explicit-which is not a lot of CDs in the grand scheme of what I own) leave it in my drawer at work and play it there.

And this might be me being anal but I really believe that the actual pressed and payed for CD has better quality than a CD you burn, even if the song you burnt on to the disc was imported from the actual CD. Of course the only time I need to burn a CD is for work since I have an aux port in my car that allows me to plug my iPod into the stereo system without degrading of sound like you get with iTrip and those tape things (no tape player in my car anyway).

[ASR]

My car's got an auxiliary port as well. Good thing, too, since I hate the radio stations around here.

I swear, I think Michigan radio stations personally played Soulja Boy more than anywhere else.

[Majikn]

My only trouble with CDs is I have a hell of a time finding the ones I'm looking for. But yeah I'd still rather have it in my hand.

As for VC and stuff, I basically take all that crap and transfer it to my computer. If my Wii fails I can just put the thing back on without having to download it all over again. I'd still have to get it fixed, but...

[Mikero]

That's smart. I'll probably do that with VC games if I buy them, and the internet channel since I don't ever want to have to pay for it.

[NovaMan XP]

I put my VC games and channels on my SD card after downloading them, and my save files...  It would really suck to lose any of those things on accident.