Sad news: the house that built Bioshock’s Rapture and Bioshock Infinite’s Columbia is shutting down. Per Ken Levine: “I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it.” He’s starting a new venture with Take-Two, keeping only about 15 employees, while BioShock changes hands to Take-Two.
Tag: irrational games
The Various Versions of BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite was announced a long time ago in gamer terms: 2010 was the first time we heard about the world of Columbia in any official sense (Irrational had been referring to the game as Project: Icarus before that). Even though we’ve known about it for three years, we can assume it’s been in development for much longer than that. Naturally, any game with a long gestation cycle will undergo a lot of changes, and BioShock Infinite is no exception. The folks over at Outside Xbox have a short video detailing the ways that Infinite has progressed ever since we first laid eyes on it, and I thought I’d share it with you for this week’s “Did You See This” Wednesday.
Even though we at GamerSushi are extremely happy with the end product, it’s crazy to think what could have been. BioShock Infinite isn’t wildly different in its final form, but Elizabeth’s powers were more broad in scope and the combat arenas were much more open and dynamic than they were in the final game. What do you guys think? Happy with how Infinite turned out? What features from 2010 would you like to have seen stay in the game?
Review: Bioshock Infinite
Hype. It has been the pitfall of many a game and it can appear at anytime from any number of sources. An amazing trailer, such as Dead Island. A genius auteur, like Hideo Kojima and his Metal Gear Solid series. A storied franchise, like Final Fantasy. All have been the focal point of an intense wave of hype and anticipation and all, at various points, have failed to live up to the near-unattainable level of quality that the gaming masses expected.
The almost-ravenous desire for Bioshock Infinite stems from all three of the sources mentioned above. At E3 in 2010, a clever trailer brought the world’s eye upon the game for the first time. Ken Levine, the man behind the first Bioshock, itself heralded as one of the greatest achievements in gaming, was back with a brand new game, set in a brand new world with promises to blow our minds as thoroughly as Andrew Ryan did in Rapture. Then the reviews started to come in, garnering some of the most lavish praise ever bestowed upon a video game. The hype was out of control. Surely there is no way a game can live up to this kind of fervor. Bioshock Infinite is going to disappoint us just like so many of the ones that came before.
It does not. Continue reading Review: Bioshock Infinite
BioShock Infinite Steps Up the Difficulty with 1999 Mode
Some of the other writers here at GamerSushi may fall into the category of gamers who would agree that developers “just don’t make āem like they used to.” With plenty of respectably aging gamers out there who grew up on games that made today’s “Veteran” difficulty look like child’s play, it’s no wonder a change was bound to happen. The crew over at Irrational Games, makers of the BioShock series, is introducing a new level of difficulty in BioShock Infinite with “1999 Mode.” This mode is designed to āchallenge players in a variety of ways ā each requiring substantial commitment and skill development.” But what does this mean exactly?
Iām an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me. So we went straight to the horseās mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games. 94.6 percent of respondents indicated that upgrade choices enhanced their BioShock gameplay experience; however, 56.8 percent indicated that being required to make permanent decisions about their character would have made the game even better.ā ā Kevin Levine, Creative Director
The idea behind 1999 Mode is to make players think much harder about the decisions they make while playing the game. Gone will be the day of rushing in like Rambo without thinking. Players will have to deal with each and every one of their choices – sometimes permanently. This new game mode will also force the player to pick specializations and focus on them. The new mode will also have “demanding” stat requirements including health, power and your weaponry. Respawning will also be much tougher, with players experiencing the old school “Game Over” screen if they donāt have sufficient resources to get back into the action.
So what do you guys think of this new game mode? With games like Call of Duty, where players can charge through recklessly, will BioShock Infiniteās new approach change the way we approach single player campaigns? I can certainly see this sticking with certain types of games. How about you guys? Will we see more of this in games, or can today’s youth not handle the challenge?
Source ā Business Wire
BioShock Infinite Gameplay Video is on Cloud Nine
BioShock Infinite (or Skyoshock, if you’re feeling sassy) was announced in late July amid much fervor and rumors. Is this a sequel to BioShock? What’s going on in the airborne city of Columbia? While we did get a glimpse at some of the fantastic looking screens, we haven’t really seen anything concrete on the game up until now. This video, shown during the behind-closed-doors press release event, goes over the sort of shenanigans we can expect to see in Irrational Game’s next foray into the BioShock universe.
One thing that strikes me about the video is how great Irrational is at world building. Much like Rapture before it, Columbia is at the tail end of its life, and the entire city is in shambles. The video opens kind of slowly, but it ramps pretty quickly after that. The game is currently set for release in 2012, so we’ve got a while to go. What do you guys think of the gameplay? Excited for Infinite?
The Debut of Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock is ditching the seas and heading to the clouds. We’ve known for some time that the original Bioshock developers, Irrational Games, have been working on a super secret project. There were even rumors of it involving the skies. But nobody could have guessed that they were working on a new Bioshock title that changes the locale of the conflict from the underwater realm of Rapture to the sky fortress known as Columbia.
Bioshock Infinite takes place in the early 1900s, when American imperialism was at an all time high and years before the construction of Rapture in the 1940s. Whether or not this is going to be considered an official prequel to the other two games, or if it’s just taking the role as a spiritual successor to them remains to be seen, but from the trailer it’s easy to tell that we are going to be dealing with the same themes of power, utopia and control. The city of Columbia is perched atop flying airships and great huge balloons, and it is gorgeous and fascinating to look at.
It’s no secret that I was not grabbed by the first Bioshock game, but the new Bioshock Infinite trailer and its setting have me itching to see more… but unfortunately, it doesn’t release until 2012. I guess that gives me plenty of time to go back and finish the original. What do you guys think of all of this?
Also, go ahead and get your “Skyoshock” jokes out of the way in 3…2…1…