Bioshock Infinite

[Mollfie]

New Bioshock game announced today!

Video

Blog

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

OH MY GOD! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

I adore Bioshock so this is amazingly awesome.

[Patticus]

Interesting move, Levine!

More:

Keeping secrets is hard.

The last three years for me have been dominated by a single question: “What are you guys doing there?”

Some of you were pretty certain it was an X-COM game, which I can now safely say it is not. It is also not part of the Freedom Force, SWAT, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, Kingdom Hearts or Yar’s Revenge franchises. The time for discussing what Irrational Games is NOT doing is over.

Today we announce BioShock Infinite.

That’s right, this is a BioShock game.

It’s a sequel.

But it’s also not a sequel.

Let me explain.

At Irrational Games, we believe that in order to fulfill expectations, you have to defy expectations.

When we completed the original BioShock, we felt we had said all we wanted to say with Rapture, but we weren’t done with the idea that is BioShock. BioShock is so much more than a story of a single place or a single time. We had so much more we wanted to say.

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.

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.

For now, we want to thank you all for your patience, and for sticking with us all these many months while we labored in silence. The time for silence is over. First up for the fans of this site is another episode of Irrational Behavior with Shawn Elliott that covers the announcement of BioShock Infinite and the work that led up to it. I’m sure you’ll dig it.

Down the road a bit, actual gameplay footage awaits. It’s something you’re going to want to watch more than once. Trust me on this one.

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

I never expected this Irrational announcement to be Bioshock! I'm so, so glad Levine hasn't given up on the franchise.

[Mollfie]

^ lol isn't that the same as my second link?

I'm glad they've gone a different route with it, Rapture was fantastic but I don't think a third game there would have worked AT ALL. It was time for something new. This looks really interesting and inventive, same Bioshock core but different place, characters etc.

[Patticus]

^ lol isn't that the same as my second link?

Couldn't be bothered to look so decided to just post it. Sorry man. It's easier if people have fewer links to traverse.

Apparently the game is to be a sequel/prequel, set in or around 1912. The man conducting to a gramophone record in this game looks like Andrew Ryan, and his face gets obscured by the sun so maybe it is. An origin story perhaps?

[Mollfie]

lol it's cool I just found it funny.

I'm glad they're continuing too, I don't want them to give up on Bioshock, it's too good! I hope this lives up to hype and is as good as the others, if not better. I think it'll be better than the second one because it's fresher, it's not really a sequel.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Well this came out of nowhere.... Urm...

a city in the sky?

Isn't that going to ruin the mystery a tad?

The Big Daddy certainly looks a tad, cyborgy? Also reading the blog it says that Rapture is done? No more Rapture? But there was so much more left to do there? Also wasn't Bioshock supposed to be a trilogy? So why the sudden departure from Rapture? Oh well... I guess we'll have to wait and see, not quite excited yet so much as I'm thinking "Well thats different."

*reads a bit more*

Hmmmm So... you're no longer in a secret city, the city is American made, you have an identity, and you'll traverse the city via zip-lines....

At what point is this a Bioshock game?

Edited August 12, 2010 by Gnasher

[Mollfie]

This isn't really Bioshock 3 though, it's Bioshock Infinite, so maybe they're trying a different route and may backtack one day and do a Bioshock 3 set in Rapture? You never know, people often say they won't do something and then do lol.

There was a lot left in Rapture, but judging by people's reactions most people didn't want them to go back to Rapture and felt the second game, although great, wasn't the best. So I'm guessing this is their answer?

Yeah it seems a bit 'random' (I hate using that word like this) but I'm sure they have a good reason for it, who knows?

Edited August 12, 2010 by Mollfie

[Badnik Mechanic]

This isn't really Bioshock 3 though, it's Bioshock Infinite, so maybe they're trying a different route and back backtack one day and do a Bioshock 3 set in Rapture? You never know. There was a lot left in Rapture, but judging by people's reactions most people didn't want them to go back to Rapture and felt the second game, although great, wasn't the best.

But the thing is... at what point does this become a Bioshock game? Right now it looks like Bioshock in title only, that cyborg Big Daddy that we see could so easilly have been any generic super big monster. It's not Bioshock 3 no, but it's got Bioshock in it's title, so surely it must reflect the worlds that came before it in someway right?

Also, other than that poster, theres not even a reference to a little sister. It kinda feels a bit like C&C Generals did when they announced that, it's a Command and Conquer game in name only.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Gnasher

[Mollfie]

I don't know, maybe that'll be revealed over time in more announcements, videos etc? I agree it's very different but you can see elements of Bioshock-ness in the concept, and most like the gameplay too. But without seeing more information we can't know yet. Maybe it links in with the story of Rapture but set elsewhere, maybe it links in with Sandra Cohen etc, it could be anything really.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Mollfie

[Patticus]

I doubt that Levine ever intended to make the Bioshock 2 that got made; he himself said that they felt that they'd done all they could with Rapture in the first game, so one can only conclude that the second was made purely for the money. This will be his second game. I expect this one to get a Levine-less sequel too, and then another Leviney Bioshock will follow, followed by its own dead-horse-flogger. Levine will have his trilogy and the marketing department will have theirs.

The game is Bioshock because the man who created it says that it is. It wouldn't surprise me for a moment if this game marks Andrew Ryan's first major venture, and may be the one that turns him to desiring an oceanic home. I'd like to see another venture go bad for him before Rapture though, maybe like an ice city in Greenland or Antarctica with towering, glittering skyscrapers and deep tunnels descending under the ice and into the earth; sort of a combination of high and low altitudes.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Daytime settings

Statue. In a very pretty utopian esq setting.

I bet you 50p that dude is an enemy... yet that is not a splicer at all... No disfiguration, other than that device on his hand no obvious weapon. Urm... I know I've said it a few times... but does anyone spot anything Bioshock related out of this?

I wish he'd made the original Bioshock pitch, that thing sounds stunning.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Gnasher

[Patticus]

Lots of interesting stuff here:

SS: Your new game is quite a dramatic change from BioShock, isn’t it?

KL: I think the mission of this studio is to make games that other people couldn’t or wouldn’t make…when it comes to a BioShock game, the obvious thing people think about is the location. My sense is it’s more about mystery. It is about location, but that location isn’t Rapture.

We wanted to start this game with a sense of, “there are no sacred cows.” Anything from the existing franchise that would go into Project Icarus had to earn its way there. So there are obviously some similar elements. But there are also elements that you don’t even know what to make of. That’s important to us. There are so many things that are tropes of the BioShock franchise — Big Daddies and Little Sisters wandering around, for example. But even something as primal and central as that, we thought…is that the right thing for this game? Or do we want to take it in a totally different direction?

So “Project Icarus” is turning the page on the franchise and exploring a different direction.

SS: On that note, you couldn’t really consider “Project Icarus” to be a sequel to BioShock. Do you think of it as a re-imagining?

KL: In the game industry, people have a particular sense of what a sequel is. You know, they’re going to follow the story, it will be the same world, a lot of the same weapons…

I guess “re-imagining” is a good way to describe it. Anything that was in the previous game has to earn its way into this game. We’re open to explode any ideas, change any ideas, re-imagine any ideas. That’s why we’ve been quiet for so long. That’s a question we’ve had to wrestle with for a long time, and it took us a few years to get to the point where we were ready to talk about it. Now the team is super excited about it.

Once you make a game like BioShock, the audience expects to be surprised and amazed the same way they were by Rapture. We wanted to make sure we had something that felt familiar in some ways, but also felt different at the same time.

SS: Would you say that “Project Icarus” is in the same universe, or the same timeline, as BioShock?

KL: That’s a good question. That’s something that people should keep their eyes on — once the gameplay footage comes out, there will be some things that will make people ask questions along those lines, and wonder about any of those kinds of connections.

SS: BioShock was highly notable for its Art Deco environments. But “Project Icarus,” with its flying city of Columbia, is something else altogether. What’s the inspiration for the game’s look?

KL: The feel of the game, as I described it to the team, is “Fourth of July, 1900.” The game is set in 1912 and has this feeling of an idealized America, a Norman Rockwell version of America. As with Rapture, there’s a fantastic component — the city is suspended in the air. But we wanted this feeling of this… memory of a summer’s day. Not even a real summer’s day, because there’s no summer’s day with a sky that blue, or trees that green, and the flags waving, and the popcorn popping. That’s the feeling that we wanted in this game, and it defines a lot of the look.

On a lower level, you have elements of Art Nouveau in the city, elements of colonial architecture styles in the city, and a variety of things. But they’re all in service of this “feeling.” BioShock was the same way — Art Deco gave us the “feeling” of what we wanted for that game.

Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games

SS: What brings the player to the airborne city of Columbia?

KL: One major difference from BioShock is that we felt it was really important that you are an actual person with an identity, with a mission that was clear to you. In this game you play a former Pinkerton agent named Booker DeWitt, who is known as a guy who gets things done, but maybe not in the most forthright manner.

You’re contacted by an individual who wants you to go to Columbia, a city which has disappeared into the clouds. Columbia was founded as sort of a shining city on a hill, an example of American ideals — Jeffersonian, Democratic ideals — and the city would move around the world like the White Fleet. Like the Apollo space project, it was an example of what American ingenuity and ideals can do. The city, as it moved around the world, got caught up in a violent international incident that was shocking to the world. And then Columbia disappeared into the clouds, and nobody has known where it is for quite some time. The man who has contacted you knows where the city is, and he wants you to go there to find a young woman named Elizabeth. She’s been imprisoned in a tower there since she was five years old, for 15 years, and your mission is to get Elizabeth out of the city and back to Earth.

When you arrive in Columbia, you sense this is going to be a different kind of mission. You also learn that Elizabeth is squarely in the center of a conflict that’s going on in the city. And you get more than you bargained for.

SS: Some people might call Columbia a sort of “New Rapture.” Is that accurate?

KL: One is a city floating in the air, another lies at the bottom of the sea. But the feel of the cities, and the beliefs of the populace, are things that you can sink your teeth into. It’s relatable: politics and culture. Like Rapture, Columbia is a city of ideas – very strong ideas! And those ideas are represented by how the world is visually constructed. We don’t always want to use words — I think the visuals are the strongest element we have to communicate what Columbia is.

SS: In BioShock, the player enters a devastated environment and picks through corpses in order to find out what happened. But Columbia appears to be a very “alive” city…

KL: This is very important to us, Sid. Going back to the System Shock 2 and BioShock days, we’ve given ourselves an out, which is “everybody’s dead.” There wasn’t much character interaction, and when there is… I think I’m the guy who invented the [gameplay convention of the] player interacting with a guy on the other side of a glass. [laughs] I say that with dubious pride, because that idea is getting really long in the tooth.

Our concept in this game is that there are lots of characters who don’t necessarily attack you right away — they may not be interested in getting in a fight, either. The feeling we want is somewhat like the Wild West, where you go into a room and everybody has their hand on their gun because it’s a scary place. Part of your challenge in this world is figuring out who is a threat and who isn’t. Or, if you’re in a combat situation, if there’s a way to bring another person to your side somehow. We sort of pioneered this with BioShock with the notion of the Big Daddy, who didn’t attack you right away, and here we’ve extended this idea throughout the world. We realized quickly that this is much more like the way the real world works. In shooters, we’re not accustomed to that — we’re used to everyone seeing you and shooting you. From a narrative perspective, this gives us a ton of freedom.

SS: Based on the ultra-nationalistic posters I saw in the trailer, it would seem that the citizens of Columbia don’t take too kindly to strangers?

KL: There’s a mix in Columbia, and that’s part of the conflict there. The city was designed as sort of an envoy of America…it parallels some of the conflicts in America, not just back then, but other times during our history. There are some strong viewpoints in the city; it’s taken on a certain character in regards to the role of America and Manifest Destiny, and the city’s role in the world.

SS: Will we still see returning staples of the genre, such as the audio diaries from BioShock?

KL: I’m a fan of the voice recorders for a couple of reasons. Our goal is always to see how much story we can tell in the world. Some things stick out like a sore thumb — like the guys stuck behind glass windows. But some things are important tools that can flesh out narrative in a way you can’t do any other way.

I like audio diaries, and I think we’ll be continuing with those, but our goal is to expand upon that vocabulary. Another thing we thought that was getting a little old was the idea of someone in your ear, radioing you your mission. In this game, Booker will say, “I need to find Elizabeth.” Your character can define his missions, and interpret what’s going on around him, and give feedback and drive his thoughts using his own voice. It makes you feel more active in the world.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/08/12/irrational-games-next-project-coming-to-ps3-first-video-and-ken-levine-qa/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Irrational_081210

[Mollfie]

^ it sounds better and better to me n__n

The game is Bioshock because the man who created it says that it is. It wouldn't surprise me for a moment if this game marks Andrew Ryan's first major venture, and may be the one that turns him to desiring an oceanic home. I'd like to see another venture go bad for him before Rapture though, maybe like an ice city in Greenland or Antarctica with towering, glittering skyscrapers and deep tunnels descending under the ice and into the earth; sort of a combination of high and low altitudes.

That would be awesome O_O!!

Lol Gnasher you're not going to let that go are you? <3

Edited August 12, 2010 by Mollfie

[Badnik Mechanic]

So this websitewho was at the showing has this to say about the Big Daddy you see and hear in the trailer...

That unforgettable roar of the Big Daddy is attached to what will probably be the game’s most intimidating villain. Keeping with the flying theme, this beast is a dragon-sized, metallic eagle. Its attack marked the end of the demo, and topped off what went from a tepid reaction on my part, to wild enthusiasm.

Did you get that? You don't fight Big Daddys... you fight a dragon sized eagle.

[Mollfie]

I would love to fight a dragon sized metal eagle!!

'though Mr Bubbles will forever have a special place in my heart.

[Shaddix Leto Croft]

Hype levels shot gone threw the roof I really love the Bioshock series and to see it being continued is really awesome, looks really stunning and the teaser really tricked me (like many people did) I thought it was underwater again until I seen daylight and bright blue skys what look amazing after seening that made me change my pants *I've gotta stop saying that XD*.

I must be lucky today wearing my Bioshock 2 to get a annoncement for a new Bioshock game looking forward to seeing gameplay for this game screenshots make me all giddy*crosses fingers for Gamescom or TGS appearance*

[Noir]

*pokes head into topic* I've only played a little bit of the Bioshock games at a friend's house... so excuse me if I say anything stupid about them

Personally I'm not a big fan of the whole "everyone's dead and you're all alone" thing they had going (aside from a very few characters). I loved Rapture to bits, it's a very unique environment and the culture was very interesting, but then of course it still exuded that dystopian feel and I didn't care for that. I found it hard to really get into it because of that.

This on the other hand is quite the lively city it seems. I don't doubt it'll have a lot of the uniqueness of Rapture and I'm sure they'll bring plasmids back, and those being my favorite things about Bioshock, I have to say I'm pretty excited for this. It has less of a frightening vibe and more of a fantasy one which is just my thing. My guess is that it's going to have a "so perfect it's creepy" feel to it and I like that too. I'm definitely going to keep a close eye on this and might just buy it.

[Badnik Mechanic]

This on the other hand is quite the lively city it seems. I don't doubt it'll have a lot of the uniqueness of Rapture and I'm sure they'll bring plasmids back, and those being my favorite things about Bioshock,

Thats one of the biggest problems they've got... Just about everything in Bioshock was created in Rapture. The plasmids, Adam, Big Daddys, Little Sisters, The GOD DAMN SPLICERS! everything. All made in Rapture, both games document this very well when you reach the later stages.

This one is set in 1912 nearly 60 years before the main Bioshock story. So theres no way that the majority of what I just said can appear, certainly not as we know them. The only way around that is that the scientists who make the early models would then go to Rapture in the future.

[Noir]

Well in that case, fuck XD They could definitely go with the route you mentioned though. Hopefully they do because taking out one of the core gameplay mechanics kind of takes away the feel of Bioshock as you said. If there was anything to carry over into a different setting I'd think it would be the plasmids or at least the concept.

[JezMM]

I'm very excited about this, and totally cool with all the new stuff. I totally get where he's coming from, and agree that a series doesn't have to be defined by it's physical content.

However, they should finish what they started, even if it wasn't his intent. I hope somewhere down the line we do get a BioShock 3, because I do like Rapture and loved that BioShock 2 was more of the same, quite frankly. I'd also like to see where Eleanor's story goes, and what happened to Tenembaum. However, if they answer the latter fully in the upcoming BioShock 2 DLC, I will be happy to leave Eleanor's story on an unknown, allowing the player to choose whatever ending of the three (plus variations) they like from BioShock 2.

Essentially I've invested in the story presented in BioShock 1 and 2, and will be just a little sad if after the BioShock 2 DLC we will never see any of it again.

Frankly I will be quite happy if Infinite is completely disconnected from the Rapture storyline. I've only recently been happy to realise that the reason Lamb didn't get mentioned in Bioshock 1 is because she had no real impact on the richer areas of Rapture (where B1 is set, as opposed to the poorest areas in which B2 is set). But if there are characters from Rapture who end up in this and it IS a prequel? Sorry but I'll find it too hard to sustain disbelief given that Columbia doesn't get mentioned by them ONCE in their audio diaries, especially if it's a big player like Andrew Ryan, Fontaine, Lamb, Tenembaum or Suchong.

Despite all my nattering about the Rapture BioShock games I'll just state again - I am so psyched for this game. It looks and sounds fantastic.

[Saint Nathan]

This looks amazing. If they can get the combination of B1's story and atmosphere and combine it with B2's gameplay and sense of being a real person, this will be the best game of the all time.

Note how I did not say infinity because I am not an asshole.

I'm also kind of glad they're done with Rapture. It's over and finished, unless it takes place directly after B2, then you have one of the largest areas for Little Sister creation and essentially the backbone of Rapture's ADAM, sunk to the bottom of the sea. You can't go back to Rapture and not have plasmids and ADAM and EVE HYPOS and splicers and such, it wouldn't be right.

Hopefully, Rapture is over and done with. Would I like to see it again in some form? Hell yes? A whole game set in it? Eeeehh not so much.

[Patticus]

Thats one of the biggest problems they've got... Just about everything in Bioshock was created in Rapture. The plasmids, Adam, Big Daddys, Little Sisters, The GOD DAMN SPLICERS! everything. All made in Rapture, both games document this very well when you reach the later stages.

This one is set in 1912 nearly 60 years before the main Bioshock story. So theres no way that the majority of what I just said can appear, certainly not as we know them. The only way around that is that the scientists who make the early models would then go to Rapture in the future.

It won't be plasmids, it'll be those metal devices attached to people's hands or something. I'm thinking weapons will in the main involve a mixture of WW1-era upgradable guns and fantastical abilities brought about through whatever black magic courses through the wires of those devices.

[JezMM]

Gotta say though from those screenshots... considering falling off means CERTAIN DEATH, I would have made the guard rails in Columbia just a teensy bit higher and more complex than a single knee-height bar.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Gotta say though from those screenshots... considering falling off means CERTAIN DEATH, I would have made the guard rails in Columbia just a teensy bit higher and more complex than a single knee-height bar.

If.. like the original Bioshock pitch, you can really use the environment (not just electrofying the water, or igniting gas) you can manipulate the environment, then it does open the tactic of killing people via knocking them off the side of the city... consequences would be obvious... no loot.. but an easy kill.

lol then theres multiplayer (if there is one)... and trophies too... lol I bet thats a trophy, kill X number of people by throwing them off the side of the city.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Gnasher

[Saint Nathan]

lol then theres multiplayer (if there is one)... and trophies too... lol I bet thats a trophy, kill X number of people by throwing them off the side of the city.

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