Bioshock -- the "sequel in spirit" to System Shock 2

didn't realize the sequel is going to be multiplayer based until recently. Ugh :(

no its weirder than that, from what ive read there are two totally independent teams working on it, one on the single-player and one on the multiplayer with like zero crossover (i mean im guessing the engine will be the same, but thats about it). unless thats bad info, which is possible.

see you in 2010 ;_;

shite

oh well.

just started playing this! pretty great! i could probably hack less, basically every camera and gun bot thing i come across i hack, cos like 1 in 5 you come back across with enemies near it. and i love the camera! what a great idea

i understand there is some kind of meta switcheroo at some point... i (player) don't have any idea who i (character) am, so, does the character not know either? nice tattoos anyway dude.

excited for you! - this game is so dope

i hacked the shit out of stuff too, because the hacking minigame is actually kind of fun. what a concept!

yah there's definitely a moment where it clicks and yr like I AM MASTER OF PIPE

surprised at how upfront the libertarianism is, constant PA addresses about 'parasites' etc, i figured it would be a more like a half-assed subtext. there are some genuinely scary moments, too, usually accompanied by loud big-band jazz

Jazz! That's why I hated this game!

the smuggler dudes were moving in BIBLES!

this is the only shooter where the levels really feel like actual spaces, not a sequence of challenge rooms imo. like the buildings actually make sense, and the layout wasn't just designed to give mr video game avatar a sequence of goals. play half life 2 through for the first time right now, and its def a great game, but it just reminds me of how flawlessly bioshock was put together to pull up the feeling of a real space that has been invaded by a game world if that makes sense?

this was great! but like everything it had problems. the meta-game switch was clever but everything after it felt rushed and uninteresting. i got sick of hacking. i got sick of fighting, honestly! surely something has gone wrong when your best strategy is "shock > beatdown w/ wrench" 95% of the time. near the end a lot of the splicers were all electro-y which felt cheap rather than challenging. never got into throwing out bees or even freezing dudes or w/e except on the level where your plasmids are randomized. didn't use half the weapons (or ammo types) the whole game. crossbow? what?

http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/2009/11/aquarium-photoshoot.html
also for sale!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180436488073

thought about picking this up for the Mac but the demo didn't grab me at all. gonna bootcamp and install CoD instead I think

Bloody hell, that photo shoot!

So I finally got around to this, and played it non-stop for the last two days. Pretty awesome as everyone says!

Wrote about two pages for this post then realized - there's pretty little left to say about it, even in this thread! But in short, I will say that this game does certain things amazingly well - especially the story, characterizations and atmosphere, and a few things fall flat (design-wise), but overall it's a great game.

cautiously excited about the sequel.

That Big Daddy replica sold for only two grand! Crazy cheap!

this makes me slightly more hopeful

http://www.gossipgamers.com/10-new-bioshock-2-screenshots/

This new, 30 minute podcast from Irrational Games on Bioshock & the game they were working on before Bioshock is good fun...
http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-podcast/introducing-irrational-behavior/

Boo, why do people not transcribe these things?

wtf is going on w/the build up to this game? why are ppl being such negative nancys

http://kotaku.com/5451885/bioshock-2s-chief-creator-against-a-tide-of-skeptics

I have to admit, when I realized there was a big multiplayer focus, and that you could pre-order from Gamestop to get EXCLUSIVE ONLINE CHARACTERS to play as, I did start to worry. Why does Bioshock need multiplayer at all? The shooty bits are just what I went through to get to the story, to play in that universe.

I just read that article on kotaku. My biggest problem with Bioshock 1 was that it wasn't any longer (also the last level and ending movies were pretty disappointing). I wondr what level "fort frolic" was... I might play through !ioshock 1 again before I start #2.

Is Bioshock 2 taking place during the 70s or something? Is the music/design aesthetic gonna no longer be 40s/50s stuff?

Irrational isn't doing the dev and I think that's why people are tripping

Fort Frolic was the Sander Cohen level with the plaster people sculptures and hunting down those guys and taking photos of them for the collage at the center of the shopping mall. That and the first level are probably my favorites.

I got the impression that it takes place in the aftermath of the first game, so I doubt there's a society down there to drawn upon the art and music of 1970, unless they come up with a newly populated working city and all...

The visual especially towards the beginning of that level - when you're about to take the bathysphere out but then Cohen shuts it down, instructing you over the loudspeaker while an enormous purple curtain envelops the area and the plaster corpses rise from the floor on pedestals - almost seemed like something out of Mulholland Drive.

wow ok so the new commercial for this that focuses on the multiplayer features in game video that looks like the shittiest last gen stuff ever. wtf are they thinking?

AGREED, that ad took me from "day one purchase even though I have too many games to play" all the way to "let's give it six months and see if it comes down in price"

yeah my gf (who is not a gamer at all) turned to me after it and said "wait wasn't bioshock that game you liked? i dont remember it looking so shitty" o_O

if you're talking about that terrible gamestop ad, i'm totally with you

yeah the one with the creepy scarred lady and the sailor?

yep, that's the one

yeah why anyone gave the green light to in game footage where yer character looks more float-above-the-groundy than the shitty 3rd person view in fallout 3 is beyond me

jesus christ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvsGgCMHkrg it looks like a cheat code or shitty mod of the first

good lord

actual game looks a lot better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MObDsX7I8dY

MP and SP handled by two separate dev studios btw w/equal resources. SP helmed and written by jordan thomas, the designer behind the first game's best level

it's nearly here!

more like multigayer

^the succinct summary of my feelings about this game that i have been groping for

can't help but worry that the developers of the sequel have the same grasp of the appeal of the first game as george lucas had of the appeal of the og star wars movies going into the prequels.
see also - dead space 2 "less horror, more guns!"

can't help but worry that the developers of the sequel have the same grasp of the appeal of the first game as george lucas had of the appeal of the og star wars movies going into the prequels.

and that sir, Is why until a game of the year award is given, I will be staying away from this. My memory of the first one is too good to be sullied with an inferior sequel.

otherwise it'll be Ghostbusters II all over again....... :(

so yeah, this

anybody played yet?

i'm an hour in. a little samey, claustrophobic. loking forward to some fun plasmids.

how are the horror bits so far?