Bioshock: Infinite

[Dyson]

 

Coming to PS3, PC and Xbox 360 from Irrational Games in 2012 - out of the water, in to the sky!

 

http://kotaku.com/5607451/bioshock-infinite-goes-beyond-the-sea--into-the-skies

 

 

 

First screens:

 

 

The trailer looks amazing. Glad they've taken it out of the water, I can't imagine a third game in Rapture being anything groundbreaking at all, but this looks great. Fingers crossed for a good'un

Edited August 12, 2010 by Dyson

[Cube]

It's certainly very different.

[Daft]

Looks very sunny.

[Dyson]

Looks completely different. There is a trailer up but I'm failing at getting it in the thread - but it looks great.

 

Synopsis tidbit from the official website:

BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter currently in development at Irrational Games, the studio behind the original BioShock (which sold over 4 million units worldwide). Set in 1912, BioShock Infinite introduces an entirely new narrative and gameplay experience that lifts players out of the familiar confines of Rapture and rockets them to Columbia, an immense city in the sky.

 

Former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt has been sent to rescue Elizabeth, a young woman imprisoned in Columbia since childhood. Booker develops a relationship with Elizabeth, augmenting his abilities with hers so the pair may escape from a city that is literally falling from the sky. DeWitt must learn to fight foes in high-speed Sky-Line battles, engage in combat both indoors and amongst the clouds, and harness the power of dozens of new weapons and abilities.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Dyson

[Sméagol]

Hmm, haven't bought / played the sequel yet, but all I can say is "whoohoo!"

Setting looks cool, but there's definitely the Bioshock vibe.

[Nolan]

Didn't care about Bioshock 2 enough to bother playing, but I'm all for this game.

[Ryan]

Looks cool.

[Daft]

I don't get how they're going to make it scary...

[Jimbob]

I don't get how they're going to make it scary...

 

At least in Rapture, it was easy to make the scares occur. And like yourself, i don't see how the scares will be reproduced. Unless it is done at night-time.

[Dyson]

Dark, inside sections I imagine.

[spirited away]

Dark, inside sections I imagine.

 

That could be a chilling contrast.

[Daft]

I can imagine there'll be a section with a wicked lightning storm. It'd be hard to resist doing that.

 

I'd love to see a scary game that doesn't rely on darkness and claustrophobia, I'm hoping they're looking to do that.

[Coolness Bears]

This looks sexy.

[Aimless]

Darkness is a good crutch, sure, but not a requirement.

 

I might not be Ken Levine, but I certainly don't find the setting limiting in terms of generating suspense. You could have a menacing engine room, all silhouetted gears and shadows amidst steam. A precarious trek along maintenance walkways below one of the platforms, nothing but sky beneath you and wind at your ears. Tip-toeing through a garbage compactor accompanied by the torturous screams of buckling metal, forgotten corpses and the rumble of the inevitable. A chase through a collapsing platform as it groans its last, one of those clockwork Daddies on your tail.

 

Sound, or the lack thereof, is just as powerful a tool as lighting. Scariness is implied, shock is shown.

[Daft]

Yeah, I don't think it would be too hard to do it just needs a considered approach which I don't think has been done in games. Not to my knowledge, anyway.

 

Something a simple as how the clockwork Daddies move could really turn up the tension if done right.

[Dante]

IGN's Preview:

 

Stall has escaped to a part of the city equipped with gigantic canons, and he takes aim at DeWitt. The city explodes around DeWitt and forces him to hop onto the rails, riding first upward then accelerating down and around a bend. A deranged citizen comes at him on the opposite rail and DeWitt readies a hammer, pummeling the man through the air and into the side of a building, leaving a bloody splotch as he bounces off and downward.

 

DeWitt lands back on solid ground and enters a tavern to an audience that becomes almost immediately violent. What follows is a flood of combat that shows DeWitt psychically disarming characters, blasting them with gunfire, and releasing swarms of crows on a crowd of enemies. The sequence ends with a familiar lightning power used to fry enemies in their boots. When DeWitt confronts Stall a second time he stops one of the mortars fired at him with a wave of his hand, then turns it back on the gun and blows it to hell.

 

It's at this point that the attacking city folk start looking like a mob. The new engine can currently throw about 15 enemies at players at the same time. It's a good thing players will have some help. At this point in the demo DeWitt is joined by Elizabeth, the woman he's been sent to liberate from Columbia and she has some powers of her own.

 

Not only does Elizabeth react to the combat, she helps by using her own powers to add elements to the environments. In one sequence, she sends a rain cloud over a mob of enemies giving DeWitt's lightning an extra kick if he decides to use it. And he does have a choice. Elizabeth's actions will never directly kill people off, so she won't do all of the work for you. And according to the developers she won't get in the way either as players can choose to ignore her actions and handle threats themselves.

 

As DeWitt and Elizabeth head toward a bridge, they get pinned down by gunfire behind stacks of what look like kitchen supplies. Elizabeth somehow turns the metallic cookware into a cyclone and then fuses it into a molten ball of metal, instructing DeWitt to launch it at their enemies using the game's version of a Force Push. The plan works, but it's at this point that the two are introduced to BioShock Infinite's version of a Big Daddy.

 

These creatures have a human head set atop a large mechanized body. Their visible heart is encased in glass and their oversized bodies have something of a steampunk aesthetic, only slightly less advanced. Bullets don't seem to do much to the behemoths so Elizabeth and DeWitt try to bring down the bridge around the threat. She shoots a beam of light at the top of the structure (perhaps the same heat ray she used on the pots and pans) and DeWitt sends an explosive towards it to bring the whole thing down. As the hulking enemy tries to claw its way off the collapsing bridge a few more shotgun blasts send it into the abyss.

 

Elizabeth collapses in exhaustion after the encounter and a trickle of blood runs out of her nose. Her actions are extraordinary, but they also drain her physically. She needs DeWitt's help if they're going to take on the entire city.

 

DeWitt exclaims that the "thing" is what had been chasing Elizabeth. She corrects him and points towards the sky, at a much larger, much more ominous threat. A giant mechanical bird-like creature swoops down from a building, crushing DeWitt, leaving the screen black and ending the demo.

[Gizmo]

I love it. I'm not sure about the use of the Bioshock name, it seems to me more a spiritual successor than a new game in a series, but the brand sells I guess. Just get the feeling that if Bioshock hadn't been so successful it would just be called "Inifinite"

 

Regardless, I love the sounds of it, particularly that its being developed by the original Bioshock team. Plenty of potential for awesome here. I'm already looking forward to the electrical storm level that Daft suggested.

[flameboy]

I just had to quote this guy off Ken Levine's message on the bioshock infinite website:

 

marijnlems

 

“There are two core principles for us that define a BioShock game. First, it has to be set in a world that is both fantastical and yet also grounded in the human experience. Second, it has to provide gamers with a large set of tools, and then set them loose in an environment that empowers them to solve problems in their own way.”

 

See also: System Shock. So why not just say fuck you to the marketing department and just call your NEW IP Aeroshock? Don’t let this massively stupid title be a blemish on your otherwise unimpeachable efforts…

 

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/announcement-from-ken-levine/

[The Bard]

By god this looks amazing. I actually quite liked Bioshock 2; it introduced some interesting aspects in the form of extended moral choice, but those only cropped once or twice, and it returned once again into the binary of save or harvest little sisters. One thing which that game did fantastically was the combat, I haven't had that much fun in an FPS for a long time.

 

Still, it was inferior in terms of pacing, narrative and just...the mental memorabilia you take with you after its done. Irrational is one of the best studios out there, so hopefully this will more than live up to the pedigree.

 

I just hope they've made an improvement on the actual mechanics of shooting etc, and that it isn't a step backwards from even Bioshock 2.

[Sméagol]

I just had to quote this guy off Ken Levine's message on the bioshock infinite website:

 

[..]

 

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/announcement-from-ken-levine/

I sort of agree, unless..

The thing is, they simply won't say at this point is it's the same universe or not. It might be, or it might not be. We do get to see a Daddy in the trailer though. Perhaps there is a connection. The mysteriousness around it seems forced though.

[nightwolf]

It does look quite interesting, it seems a good idea to play on the daytime and mix it up a little!

 

Argh can't wait to hear more about it, the trailer is incredibly teasing!

[Dante]

new screens:

[dwarf]

You could get eery 'scares' that are on a similar level to Tranquility Lane (Fallout 3).

Ok there wasn't much horror in it but it was certainly creepy. In the same way that clowns can be scary, Infinite may be a horrific fantasy.

 

Bioshock hasn't done it for me up to this point.

[flameboy]

You could get eery 'scares' that are on a similar level to Tranquility Lane (Fallout 3).

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/thumb/b/b4/Fallout3_TranquilityLane01_ThX.jpg/800px-Fallout3_TranquilityLane01_ThX.jpg

Ok there wasn't much horror in it but it was certainly creepy. In the same way that clowns can be scary, Infinite may be a horrific fantasy.

 

Bioshock hasn't done it for me up to this point.

 

Yeah there is a defintely a difference between that kind of creepy/eeriness and more traditional game horror! Its like you don't get those jumpy scares but you get that eerie feeling that lingers much longer and arguably has more of an impact on you than constant jump/shock tactics horror.

 

Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab

[dwarf]

Does anyone have a MIB Neuralyzer I can borrow? Would be handy.

 

It's just that I'd like to play Fallout 3 for the first time again.