Bioshock Infinite Catch-All

If you're disappointed with the announcement, go ahead and just call the game Icarus and pretend it has nothing to do with Bioshock. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Irrational was forced to give the game the Bioshock branding by 2k. They are still owned by them, are they not? The Icarus title makes sense, given the setting.

I'm still super excited for the game, but I'm one of those people who believes that if it ain't broke, don't f*ck with it.

Looks interesting. I trust Levine to tell a good story. Still, it's hard not to make assumptions about the "morality" in this game (spoiler-tagged for people who want to come in fresh):

Spoiler:

It sounds like Elizabeth is basically a win button but weakens every time she fights, so I imagine the moral choice will be to either sacrifice her health for power (evil) or tell her not to fight and handle it yourself (good).

I'm guessing there'll be at least a few points where you can fall over the edge and plunge to your death. It'd be awesome if they let you experience all of that. The long fall, the deafening rush of air, the total helplessness, and then the sudden stop. Not sure any game's ever done that before. At least, not from that altitude.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I'm guessing there'll be at least a few points where you can fall over the edge and plunge to your death. It'd be awesome if they let you experience all of that. The long fall, the deafening rush of air, the total helplessness, and then the sudden stop. Not sure any game's ever done that before. At least, not from that altitude. ;)

Mirror's Edge was pretty good in that regard. Obviously, your player wasn't falling from miles on high, but there were a few good seconds of rushing air, blurred vision, and a terrifying approach to ground level when you futzed distances.

Rock Paper Shotgun has a great write up: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...

It sounds f*cking amazing.

I will certainly be buying it and playing it late into the night but like most games these days I wish they had more balls when it came to titling them. This shouldn't NEED to be a Bioshock sequel. It looks awesome on it's own but they've got a lot of nods to Bioshock already in the media to keep the marketeers happy. Like the latest Silent Hill game, I enjoyed it but would have enjoyed it more if they'd had the guts to not dress it up as a Silent Hill game just to move units, but to let it go as a new IP.

Infinite? Okay, well I'm going to make Bioshock Infinity Plus One! With a special "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I?" edition.

Seeing as whatisicarus.com is linked in the trailer, I wonder if "Icarus" is the name of some MacGuffin in game.

Freakin' Sold on everything but the name.

RPS is right, If they absolutely have to use the Bioshock name it would make more sense to have it as "Bioshock : Columbia".

A floating city and Icarus. What could possibly happen at the end of the game?

I'm very excited about it. It's a nice change of aesthetic, there's clearly lots that someone of Levine's calibre can do with the setting, I have a deep and abiding love for steampunk, it looks great, and they've given themselves plenty of time to get it right. Happy days. In 2012, at least.

lostlobster wrote:

*breathing*

Alright, I finally saw it. Thanks for the links. I, too, was somewhat disappointed that it was another 'shock game — I was psyched to see what new idea they'd come up with. But, after having a couple of minutes to get over that... this could be really, really cool. Can't wait to see what secrets are hidden in this video.

I suspect that some of the thematic secrets are found in the

Spoiler:

fact that the Rapture imagery in the opening turns into the model from the 1893 Chicago fair. Those who have a critical perspective on expansionism, uber-patriotism, and militarism will see this as key cultural point.

A new post from Ken Levine talking about the game.

snip wrote:

It would have been easier for us to go back to the well. We could have taken the easy route. We could have simply done more of the same, but we would not have been true to ourselves as game developers. Making the original BioShock was hard. We challenged ourselves every step of the way, and we tossed aside many elements and ideas simply because they weren’t good enough.

So when we started the sequel, we said to ourselves: “We want to expand on those core principles, but beyond that, there are no sacred cows. Everything else that people know or think they know about BioShock is open for negotiation.”

You will find yourself in a completely new world. Columbia is not an unknown secret city at the bottom of the sea. It’s a creation of an America transforming from a regional agrarian collection of states into a world power with global reach.

You now play an actual character, and not a cypher who is unaware of his own identity. You are Booker Dewitt, a particular character with an established history, with a voice you will hear as he talks to himself and others in the game.

You’ve come to Columbia for a reason: to find a mysterious young woman named Elizabeth and bring her safely out of the city. She will travel with you, interact with you, and react to the situations you cause to happen, and through your relationship with her, we’re able to tell the story of this new and amazing world.

This world of Columbia presents radical differences in scale from what you are used to. You’re not crawling through corridors on the ocean floor, claustrophobic with the weight of the ocean bearing down on you. Instead you find yourself navigating through huge environments, zipping around on Sky-Lines at eighty miles per hour and getting into firefights at ranges of two thousand yards.

In fact, there is so much new and radical about BioShock Infinite that we simply can’t tell you all about it in one revelation. What we present to the world today is merely the tip of a very large iceberg. In the coming months we’ll begin to reveal more of what BioShock Infinite is all about and let the world know why we are so excited.

I don't get all the weird comments on how it shouldn't be named Bioshock. In reality it's the perfect name. Much like the first you are entering a world where people are meddling with genetic DNA and you end up messing with your own DNA. giving your biological nervous system a shock. Bioshock Infinite seems to also have more meaning.

It in the sky, and the joke has always been the Skies the limit. I think Irrational's poking a little fun at that. I mean it seems quite up their ally with how Bioshock 1 went.

I also do not understand the crying and whining over Bioshock 2. I bought Bioshock 1 not long after Bioshock 2's release because of all the Bioshock 2 hype. I loved Bioshock 1 and thought it was great. Many months later I bought Bioshock 2 and played it to completion on Hard. Bioshock 2 felt like a natural progression on the story and expanding on the worlds story and feeling. Showing a different side of Andrew Ryan and showing a different side of Rapture. A more insane side of Rapture.

All in all I'm super pumped for this game. Even more pumped because it has a fleshed out steampunk vibe. My only issue is the 2012 release date which is actually understanding. The game takes place in 1912, it will be release in 2012. That's a good 100 years after the actions of the game. This can not be coincidental, we're talking about Irrational for goodness sakes.

skeletonframes wrote:

If you're disappointed with the announcement, go ahead and just call the game Icarus and pretend it has nothing to do with Bioshock. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Irrational was forced to give the game the Bioshock branding by 2k. They are still owned by them, are they not? The Icarus title makes sense, given the setting.

I'm still super excited for the game, but I'm one of those people who believes that if it ain't broke, don't f*ck with it.

It's still a Bioshock game, though. If they had called it something different, people would have called them on that too. "It's just Bioshock in the sky!"

It would've been dishonest to call it anything else, when it's treading such a similar ground.

EDIT: Listening to the Conference Call, and Ken says pretty much exactly what I just did.

There is some fascinating stuff going on here.

Ken Levine wrote:

It would have been easier for us to go back to the well. We could have taken the easy route. We could have simply done more of the same, but we would not have been true to ourselves as game developers.

That could almost be perceived as a knock on Bioshock 2.

Ken Levine wrote:

So when we started the sequel...

This could imply that Bioshock 2 doesn't count. In fact it makes me realize that if Bioshock 2 had never existed, my pants would become pooped right now.

This confirms my feelings that Bioshock 2 was a cash-in. The harder I try to forget that it was made, the better I feel.

In the interest of full disclosure, I never played Bioshock 2. I am complete unqualified to comment on the actual quality of the game. I just always found the circumstances surrounding it distasteful.

Of course Bioshock 2 was a cash-in, but it was also a good project for a new developer.

4xis.black wrote:

Of course Bioshock 2 was a cash-in, but it was also a good project for a new developer.

It really was, and I thought Bioshock 2 was fantastic.

Bioshock in the sky? I was hoping for more swat

Podunk wrote:
4xis.black wrote:

Of course Bioshock 2 was a cash-in, but it was also a good project for a new developer.

It really was, and I thought Bioshock 2 was fantastic.

It was a great game, and in many ways better than the original.

Back on topic: Steampunk cyborgs! Flying cities! Ken Levine! Squeeeeeeee!

So he does refer to this as the "sequel". Him talking about the game and my familiarization with them through their podcast really makes me more excited about this. The setting will certainly give them a lot more opportunities to do so many more things than the first.

Stylez wrote:

Bioshock in the sky? I was hoping for more swat :(

Sierra owned that IP, and it disappeared into the bowels of Activision along with the rest of the company.

Podunk wrote:
Stylez wrote:

Bioshock in the sky? I was hoping for more swat :(

Sierra owned that IP, and it disappeared into the bowels of Activision along with the rest of the company. :(

And if I remember correctly, the rights to System Shock have disappeared into one of those larger companies. EA, I think.

+What Pyroman said. STEAMPUNK FLOATING CITY!

-Bioshock name
-Announcing 2 years before release

Media blackout, commence, NOW!

Once the trailer opened up in the ocean and I saw the remains of a Big Daddy I felt a tinge of disappointment. But as the trailer progressed that disappointment quickly subsided. You could really see the contrast between the dreary ocean atmosphere in the first few seconds of the trailer and the lush open skies of Columbia.

While I did enjoy Bioshock 2, it was fairly apparent that they've done just about all they could with Rapture without really milking it. I trust in Levine and look forward to what kind of insight Remo can provide in the development. Remo just has this amazing way of picking up on subtle gameplay quirks and questioning things that others take for granted (see his insight on Assassins Creed 2's strolling down the street and looting everyone in sight with a posse of prostitutes).

It's the same guy!

While I did enjoy Bioshock 2, it was fairly apparent that they've done just about all they could with Rapture without really milking it

I think a Bioshock "Dungeon Keeper" type game could be fairly cool.. I like the idea of resource management and "troop" management with the various factions in Bioshock as the "Overlords"

Other than that.. I think we would need a decade or so before revisiting Rapture as another FPS. I think a revisit with more open world and less rails with ridiculously detailed graphics would make sense.. so yeah in a decade or so.

Podunk wrote:
Stylez wrote:

Bioshock in the sky? I was hoping for more swat :(

Sierra owned that IP, and it disappeared into the bowels of Activision along with the rest of the company. :(

Hate it when that happens. Same thing with "No One Lives Forever" if I recall

Bioshock 2 wasn't completely awful - I actually quite liked the story and characters involved - but I think the balance was pushed MUCH too far in the 'action' direction for my tastes. Walk into the next room and there's already a splicer or two respawned in the corridor you just came from. That, and the whole "defend the little sister" mechanic was a total pain in the backside.

I pretty much gave up on it in the end, whacked in god mode and cheated my way through most of it.

General Crespin wrote:

STEAMPUNK FLOATING CITY!

Really this is all I need. Now I just need to write a, err, brain script or something that will replace "Bioshock Infinite" with "STEAMPUNK FLOATING CITY GAME!" every time I see it.

I hope there's a robot Teddy Roosevelt.

TheGameguru wrote:
While I did enjoy Bioshock 2, it was fairly apparent that they've done just about all they could with Rapture without really milking it

I think a Bioshock "Dungeon Keeper" type game could be fairly cool.. I like the idea of resource management and "troop" management with the various factions in Bioshock as the "Overlords"

Other than that.. I think we would need a decade or so before revisiting Rapture as another FPS. I think a revisit with more open world and less rails with ridiculously detailed graphics would make sense.. so yeah in a decade or so.

I think we just need a new Dungeon Keeper game, period. On the iPhone/iPad maybe? Get on it, lazyweb.

What I find amusing is that in a long-ago podcast shortly after the original Bioshock came out Shawn Elliot was winding up people by claiming that Bioshock was the first of a planned trilogy. He said the second would be called "Geoshock" and set underground and the third "Aeroshock" and set in a city floating in the sky. Of course he was just trying to wind people up, but while the second Bioshock was back in Rapture the third game has turned out to be in a city floating in the sky. Sometimes reality does take its cues from fiction.

Podunk wrote:
4xis.black wrote:

Of course Bioshock 2 was a cash-in, but it was also a good project for a new developer.

It really was, and I thought Bioshock 2 was fantastic.

Agreed, and this looks awesome.