Bionic Commando podcast with Director Ulf Andersson

November 28th, 2007 Seth Killian

Bionic Commando producer and man-about-town Ben Judd is back on the mic.

This week’s guest is Director Ulf Andersson, joining the team live from the home of Swedish developers GRIN, discussing story changes, character design and if we’ll see colors in the final game! Ben Judd and the team also respond to your questions.

Posted in podcasts, Those crazy Europeans!, Bionic Commando | 1 Comment »

Kotaku Feature On Ben Judd, Bionic Commando Producer

November 27th, 2007 Chris Tou

Kotaku editor Brian Ashcraft does his thing from across the big pond over in Japan. In fact, he does it from the city of Osaka, which just happens to be where Castle Capcom is located. This makes Ben Judd, who is in Japan, producing games, a mere stone’s throw away and naturally a great interview candidate, and so Kotaku did exactly that.

Brian has just posted on Kotaku said exclusive interview where Ben discloses more about how he got started in the industry and ended up at the console game development mecca known as Japan, how Bionic Commando went from a possible 2D portable title to a next-gen AAA experience, working with both Japanese and Swedish developers at the same time, and having hot dogs hanging off your arm…

After graduation, he got a job at an import video game shop and kept studying Japanese full speed. He measured his progress by his ability to understand Final Fantasy games in their native lingo. “When I got Final Fantasy VII and Cloud showed up in a bath with other men,” Judd remember, “I had no clue what was going on.” By the time he got to FFIX, he could completely understand 98 percent of the game in Japanese. But Judd knew that if he was ever going to use his language skills, he need to get it damn close to perfect - as perfect as it was going to be for a non-native speaker. Making the trip out to Japan again, he got a job teaching English. His free time was spent honing his language skills. “Then about that time, there was a death in the family,” Judd says. “Here I was whiling away my time in Japan. I needed to get back to States.” Capcom USA had a job opening, and Judd applied. Translation tests, interview-after-interview and teleconferences in Tokyo followed. Judd was hired. And after a stint working in the American office, he was back in Japan.

Check out the whole feature on Kotaku.

Posted in Bionic Commando, PS3, Xbox 360, Interviews | No Comments »

New Bionic Commando Podcast

November 20th, 2007 Seth Killian

New podcast up over at the Bionic Commando site:

Capcom Japan’s Creative Advisor Motohide Eshiro (pictured above!) joins Producer Ben Judd to discuss his role on Bionic Commando, how Capcom Japan are involved, and his thoughts on Swedish girls. The team also responds directly to your questions on Bionic Commando.

Rumor has it that Ben Judd has lined up some truly all-star guests for the recurring podcasts, so make sure to check back for updates.

Posted in podcasts, Bionic Commando | 1 Comment »

New podcast from Bionic Commando producer, Ben Judd

October 30th, 2007 Seth Killian

Head over to our Bionic Commando site and click the “Top Secret” button to access the podcast. You might think that a big “Top Secret!” button with no password of any kind is not the best place to store secrets, but that’s because you are not as smart as we are. If you ARE able to unearth the podcast, you will thrill to Ben (”don’t call me Benn”) Judd discussing:

- his memories of the original Bionic Commando- how he got started at Capcom Japan and how he became a producer

- why he wants to bring back the Bionic Commando franchise

- the advantages and disadvantages of bringing back old franchises in games and movies, and the challenges surrounding this kind of move

- whether games are art or not, and if they can make you cry

- about designing and creating the new BC game, and the cultural conflicts in that

- killing a bum, just to watch him die.

Posted in Bionic Commando, Interview | 1 Comment »

Bionic Commando Interview With Ben Judd

October 24th, 2007 Chris Tou

GameInformer has posted their 2-part interview with Ben Judd, producer of Bionic Commando. Besides talking about Bionic Commando, Ben actually shares his non-traditional path into the gaming industry, which may be of particular interest to many of you, since one of the most common questions we often get is, “How do I get a job in the gaming industry?”

Game Informer: For the readers who don’t know the real Ben Judd, can you explain how you got started at Capcom and what you used to do before you started work with this game?

Ben Judd: It was actually an interesting story. I was living and working in Japan as an English teacher, and they hired me into Capcom USA from Japan, which is kind of strange because they had maybe 25 or 30 different candidates and they chose me - and I was certainly not the cheapest person, because they had to hire me all the way from Japan to the U.S. I worked there for a year as a marketing specialist, which meant that I would interpret and translate for most of the business meetings, at the PR events and whenever people like yourself would come over and there were ROMs that were all in Japanese, I would sort of walk people through that. It was a really nice job at first, but after about a year —

Be sure to read both Part 1 and Part 2 to get the full interview!

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Bionic Commando Gameplay Videos

October 18th, 2007 Chris Tou

GameSpot has just posted 3 new videos on several of the gameplay mechanics of Bionic Commando, the Wire Mechanics, The Swing, and the transformation of the Bionic Hand. Check them out!

Wire Mechanics

The Swing

Bionic Hand: Transformation Mockup

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Bionic Commando Debut Trailer

October 18th, 2007 Chris Tou

Posted in Bionic Commando, Trailers | No Comments »

Bionic Commando® Returns!

October 16th, 2007 Christine

Returning from a more than 20 year hiatus, one of the most fondly-remembered and oft-demanded Capcom characters returns in next-gen 3D form! Making an amazing leap and swinging into the next generation of gaming, Bionic Commando® combines the genius of the bionic arm mechanic with the power of next generation hardware. Get the full scoop and get over to Gamespot, then come back and discuss what you want to see in the new Bionic Commando® on the Capcom Unity forums!

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Capcom® Announces Return of Bionic Commando®

October 16th, 2007 Chris Tou

Classic Action Title Rearmed for the Next-gen

SAN MATEO, Calif. - October 16, 2007 - Capcom® Entertainment, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today confirmed the return of one of its classic franchises with the announcement that Bionic Commando® is in development for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PC platforms.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Bionic Commando, Press Release, PS3, Xbox 360 | No Comments »