Bioshock Infinite

[Hendo]

Well I'm pretty excited.

Bar the name, as I think they should've made a clear line in the sand that this was a different series (though apparently some characters may return in their younger selves) and the fact that Ken Levine isn't giving much backing to Bioshock 2 in interviews, if you read between the lines.

"The reason we didn't do BioShock 2 is because... The time frame that game had, and the company understandably wanted another game in Rapture... But we felt we had said what we wanted to say about Rapture, about those kind of environments and that kind of feel.

"We want to scare the hell out of people, we want to shock people, but we didn't want to have any of the tools, the crutches, that we knew how to do that with."

So, what did Levine think of BioShock 2?

"I think it's a very talented team," he said, "and I think it fulfilled the mission of completing the story of Rapture."

And also:

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.

Bioshock 1 had the upper hand with the story and uniqueness of setting but the second was a better game, shame so many people turned their noses up at it.

[hinn888]

2 new screens

[TopGunKnacker]

lol i thought this was the fable thread with those pix! especially as the dude in the first one looks the SPIT of peter molyneax

[retroed]

This is going to be the cover story of the next Game Informer. Three covers.

[illdog]

And from the above Game Informer, new screens:

Looks awesome.

[Jimboxy]

looks a bit like a steam punk fable.

[Hendo]

10 minute gameplay trailer is up on the 360 marketplace.

Or watch here:

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[DANGERMAN]

was any of that actually gameplay because it all looked very very scripted?

[Sambob]

It did look very scripted but it looked great, still need a few more details before this is a first day buy, but I have to admit that I'm more excited than I have reason to be about this.

[illdog]

Me too, i think its looks brilliant. I was really hoping it would stay blue skies tho, doesnt look like it.

[Hendo]

Listening to Jeff Gerstmann talk about it, it sounds like it's very real.

Also:

Shooter BioShock Infinite is not a heavily scripted game, creator Irrational Games has insisted.

The developer put out a stunning gameplay demo this week which some reckon suggests Ken Levine's next is more scripted than previous BioShock games.

This, however, is not the case.

"No, it's definitely not going to be one giant action sequence," lead artist Shaun Robertson told Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"Our purpose was to introduce people to the world of Columbia, to Elizabeth and to Booker DeWitt. Yeah, there are some demo-ey things in there that help progress the action."

[DANGERMAN]

Listening to Jeff Gerstmann talk about it, it sounds like it's very real.

Also:

Shooter BioShock Infinite is not a heavily scripted game, creator Irrational Games has insisted.

The developer put out a stunning gameplay demo this week which some reckon suggests Ken Levine's next is more scripted than previous BioShock games.

This, however, is not the case.

"No, it's definitely not going to be one giant action sequence," lead artist Shaun Robertson told Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"Our purpose was to introduce people to the world of Columbia, to Elizabeth and to Booker DeWitt. Yeah, there are some demo-ey things in there that help progress the action."

I dont know, he still sounded like it was only his hard on for it that stopped him from saying how linear it was. Basically him and Vinny (on the bombcast) said that thats what they wanted, and thats exactly what i didnt like about the first game I'm not overly eager for this.

And that quote above reads like an admittance that some of it is going to be very scripted, such as the bit in the trailer, but opening up later.

We'll see when it comes out, and I know better than to write something off based on 9 minutes of footage

[Hendo]

I think it was scripted in a certain way, in the sense that they probably could've killed the guy giving the speech straight away but wanted to show him go on the rail. Likewise, you could see that you could take down the Handy Man in a number of ways and they chose to do it as the woman suggests.

I'd say a lot of set-pieces will happen in the same way as the original Bioshock but there might be different ends that can branch off depending on how you deal with it.

Here's the interview Gerstmann talked about:

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[Hendo]

Someone on rllmuk has noticed some possible hints at the story:

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but did anyone else notice something strange at about 1:40 into the demo video? I downloaded the version on Live last night, and around that time stamp the player's walking near a fallen banner and it distorts in a weird way. Out of the corner of my eye I thought it was some sort of graphical glitch, but rewinding and looking at it properly it's clearly done on purpose; there's a low, rippling audio cue attached.

I'm going to watch the rest of the footage to see how many other occurrences I can spot. It seems to happen again when the preacher confronts you, the same sound effect recurring as the man's badge changes form briefly from an American flag to a hammer and sickle, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's more instances to find.

Could this be a hint of where the story's going, something to do with distorted realities or even time travel?

Edit: No audio cue, but the painting as the player enters the bar also changes. I didn't spot any others, though.

[illdog]

A gameplay trailer:

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Contains no surprises but it just looks luverly.

[Hendo]

Sign me up.

[hinn888]

Really like the look of this. Amazing surroundings too.

[hinn888]

Finally, you get a face.

[DANGERMAN]

there's a new gameplay demo of this on the PSN store, seemingly from the ps3 build of the game (it's got ps3 button icons). It looks good, certainly exciting.

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I'm still not convinced how much fo that you control, the shooting obviously you do, but the exploring seems a bit smooth. And I know the guy demoing would have played the game before, but he knows exactly where to go, watching it I couldn't see how I would have worked out the route he took or even that he needed to do that. It is looking a bit special though

and keep an ear out for Atlas, pretty sure he's in there (not as Atlas though)

[wholehole]

Literally counting the days until this arrives and i'm hoping for a sweet collectors edition (hopefully with a bronze bust of Ken ). Very interested to see more of the rifts Elizabeth can open and how that ties into the overall story. Not too sure about their use in combat however but as long as they don't overuse it, it should be fine.