BioShock: Infinite Message Board older than one year ago

#bioshock Two senior-level members of Irrational Games—the highly regarded development studio behind BioShock and the upcoming BioShock Infinite—have left the studio, according to Gamasutra. More »

Game later, man! GAME LATER!

It seems game publishers can't escape this year's holiday rush fast enough. Over the last couple of weeks, both BioShock Infinite and South Park: The Stick of Truth made hasty exits into early 2013, and now Aliens: Colonial Marines will be joining them.

Originally slated as a fall 2012 release, Sega announced today that Gearbox Software's upcoming first-person shooter based on the popular film franchise will instead release on February 13, 2013 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

As for the Wii U version of the game, which had at one point been targeted as a launch title for Nintendo's new console, it currently has no finalized release date. Sega's press release simply says that a date will be announced "at a later time."

Aliens always seemed like a game on the bubble, anyway, considering its release date had been kicked around a few times previously. Still, that's three big titles that have slipped out 2012's back door, and one gets the impression that this won't be the last time this happens before the year is out. Anyone want to take odds on which game might be next?

So weird to think this year will be my...12th time heading down to LA for E3. 12 years! Man. What?

As I write this, Jeff should be heading to the airport, having finished a week of “judging” games in Los Angeles. It sounded long and grueling. We haven’t booked many E3 appointments yet, as Jeff’s time with so many of the games that will be present at E3 proves very valuable in determining what’s actually worth our time.

It’s truly hard to have a good sense of what we’re in store for at E3 this year. I’m actually pleased BioShock Infinite won’t be making an appearance--the less of that I see before release, and the longer they work on it, the better. As in years past, I’m most looking forward to wandering the show floor and being pleasantly surprised.

We’re hearing details on Unreal Engine 4, but there won’t be a console with the leap-frogging visual technology we have come to commonly associate with a brand-new console. Still, I’m intrigued by Wii U, and even if the tablet proves nothing more than a clever gimmick for a few games made in-house at Nintendo, that’s enough for me. We haven’t heard from Retro Studios in a while, and if the rumors of that studio rushing to have a game in time for launch are true, I’d be awful pleased. Those guys have proven trustworthy.

Such predictions are, perhaps, better left for the podcast. We have a few more until E3 kicks off.

I’m off to slay some evil things in Dragon’s Dogma.

Hey, You Should Play This:

• The Journey Down by Skygoblin

You’re getting a blind recommendation here, but that’s because this episodic adventure has been recommended by so many others I trust. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because The Journey Down was, technically, already released. The developers spent a huge amount of time revamping The Journey Down, adding a voiced cast, more story and puzzles, high-definition visuals, and perhaps the greatest bullet point of all: more jazz. You can still play the award-winning original for free on the game’s website, but PC and Mac versions of the updated edition are now available. iPhone and iPad users can look forward to a touchable port soon, and Linux is on the docket, as well.

• McPixel by Sos Sosowski

Adventure games are the the definition of peaceful, casual play. There is no rush, no death state. McPixel is a point ‘n click adventure game, but one that throws traditional notions out the window, favoring a frantic style of puzzle solving that has more in common with the WarioWare series than anything else. You have 20 seconds to solve each puzzle in McPixel, but just like WarioWare, success isn’t everything. Even if you click around the screen for 20 seconds and explode into a puff of smoke, the game moves on, the next puzzle approaches. Click, click, click!

You Should Read These, Too:

• With the Galaxy in Flames, My Video Game Hero Finally Came Out of the Closet by Denis Farr for Kotaku

It’s always bothered me BioWare attached relationships in Mass Effect to achievements. Rather than encouraging players to inhabit their characters, it inspired them to trigger the game’s poorly scripted sex scenes and wait for the familiar blip. Denis Farr played a gay character in Mass Effect, even when the series didn’t have conversation options to outright support it. That ultimately changed in Mass Effect 3, and the series-encompassing story Farr tells about how his character finally came to embrace his feelings proves a moving meta-narrative about Commander Shepard.

• From panties to shorties: why the young anime girls of Tera were censored by Wesley Yin-Poole for Eurogamer

More than others mediums, games can be enjoyed worldwide. There are fewer barriers to entry--mechanics transcend language. Our cultural understandings of traits like sexuality, however, are a far different story. There’s been a slowly brewing controversy about the Elins race in recent MMO Tera. Elins are a child-like race that have some key additional pieces of clothing in the version that launched outside of South Korea. The clothing decision caused ripples among observers and fans of the game. You need only look at the YouTube comments for the video featured above and in Wesley Yin-Poole’s piece for Euogamer for a taste of the perceptual divisions on this issue.

And Some Other Stuff:

• Jim Guthrie’s superb soundtrack for Indie Game: The Movie is available to buy, and also streaming on Spotify.
• The next time you’re stressed, hang out with this really pretty tree (aka visual experiment Kyoto).
• This essay about being a straight, white mail in society, contextualized with game terminology, made the social rounds this week. It’s not saying anything new, just saying it differently. Maybe that’s enough?
• If you want a bleak look at the future of monetization, Michael Thomsen’s analysis will scare the piss out of you.
• Liliac.27 is an interesting Ludum Dare entry that combines some basic 3D geometry with pixel art.
• Besides its excellent 90s launch trailer, Offspring Fling is a rock-solid puzzle game. Check it out.
• The Japanese government is investigating whether some game mechanics should be illegal. How long until that happens here, too? And is there really a good argument for why these mechanics are okay?
• Jade Raymond is tired of the video games we keep making. Me too! Please change that, Jade?
• Forget Me Not is one of my favorite iOS games. Imagine a Pac-Man roguelike. Now, play it on your browser.

Not that we necessarily needed to remind you of this, but the fall season means lots of big games all coming out at the same two, maybe three month period in the hopes of capturing a sizable hunk of those sweet, sweet holiday season monies. Now that BioShock Infinite has sky-hooked off to February, one can imagine that most publishers (that aren't 2K Games) are breathing a bit of a sigh of relief right now...until, of course, they realize that Halo 4, Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil 6, Far Cry 3, and, of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops II are all still coming out within a ten-week span of each other. And that doesn't even take into account all those Grand Theft Auto V release rumors. Yeesh.

Steampunk stealthin' (otherwise known as Dishonored) is heading to stores this October.

Let's toss two more promising, though perhaps not as immediately brand-recognizable titles onto that heap, as both Square-Enix's assassination sequel Hitman: Absolution (I'll never get used to not calling that an Eidos game) and Bethesda's steampunk stealth action game Dishonored, will be headed to store shelves around that very same time.

Dishonored, which is in development at Arkane Studios, is set for release on October 9. This looks to be the game that could benefit most from Infinite's delay, given that Infinite was originally set for a later October release. Given that this is a new property--and we all know how often new properties tend to struggle when put up against behemoths like Halo and Call of Duty--every little bit helps.

As for Hitman, buried in a press release full of pre-order bonus information for a Sniper Challenge available exclusively at GameStop (there, I mentioned it, okay?) was the helpful note that Absolution will be arriving on store shelves November 20. That puts it squarely at the end of the current fall release calendar, and the closest to "Black Friday" of any of the other games with announced dates thus far. It's also the week after Black Ops II hits shelves, which wouldn't bode well for anybody, really.

If you thought last fall looked expensive, this one's starting to look just as nuts, if not a whole lot nuttier.

#bioshock A job listing posted by the creators of the just-delayed-to-2013 BioShock Inifinite on LinkedIn on May 2 seeks a "talented and experienced individual to help us with the networking aspects of BioShock Infinite." More »

Take-Two has delayed BioShock Infinite until February 26, 2013.

"When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing. Since then, we've uncovered opportunities to make Infinite into something even more extraordinary," said Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine. "Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need to deliver the best Infinite possible, we've decided to move the game's release to February."

Levine also mentioned in a separate statement that the game will be going dark from here on out, noting it will not be shown at mega events E3 and Gamescom.

"That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we're going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February."

Oh, god, don't cry Elizabeth. It's only a four month delay. Seriously, I can't deal with those giant sobbing doll eyes of yours.

If you were one of the many people gleefully looking forward to BioShock Infinite's announced October release date, marking off the days from now until the time which you'd be able to sky-hook your way around the floating city of Columbia, you're going to want to add a few extra months to that timetable. 2K and Irrational Games announced this morning that BioShock Infinite won't be hitting that original release date, nor any date inside of 2012. Instead, it's been pushed to February 26, 2013.

The reason for the delay? Opportunities, of course. In this case, Levine was quoted in an official statement as having "uncovered opportunities to make Infinite into something even more extraordinary." What, exactly, those opportunities are, we do not know. But they apparently were big enough that they required skipping both E3 and Gamescom this year. Levine said in a separate statement that the game won't be making appearances at either show.

That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we're going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February.

While this is likely encouraging news to pretty much every other game publisher who had any interest in winning an E3 or Gamescom award this year, it's not so great for everyone who actually wanted to play BioShock Infinite this year. To those who did, perhaps take some solace in the fact that opportunities for extraordinary...erm, stuff of some kind are being explored. And that stuff will probably be great. But not until February. And not at E3. Or Gamescom.

Take-Two has delayed BioShock Infinite until February 26, 2013.

"When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing. Since then, we've uncovered opportunities to make Infinite into something even more extraordinary," said Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine. "Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need to deliver the best Infinite possible, we've decided to move the game's release to February."

Levine also mentioned in a separate statement that the game will be going dark from here on out, noting it will not be shown at mega events E3 and Gamescom.

"That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we're going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February."

#bioshock This fall's much-anticipated BioShock Infinite will now be released in February 26, 2013, publisher Take Two announced this morning. More »

Let’s do this, okay: When a new game first announces a release date, let’s just go ahead and ignore it. Wasn’t it Einstein who said the very definition of insanity was filling a balloon with kittens and then severing off your own leg? So it is that BioShock: Infinite has declared it won’t be with us this year at all. They’re now looking at February next year.

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#bioshock I am sick to death of hearing about BioShock Infinite. It's become one of those games, like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, that I've been hearing about for so long that the more I hear, the more it sounds like white noise. More »

#bioshock This Big Daddy and this Little Sister walked into the BioShock Infinite panel at PAX East today. Pretty good cosplay, folks! More »

The "heavy hitters" of BioShock Infinite have, so far, been profoundly eerie to look at. The Siren, however, is much creepier to deal with, as it has the power to bring downed enemies back. Oh, and it sings an otherworldly song to raise those enemies, so it's just generally creepy as well.

Now that you’ve met the Motorized Patriot, Handyman, and the Boys of Silence, it’s now time to reveal the fourth and final installment of our Heavy Hitter series – and we’re taking the creepy factor up a notch. Imagine taking down a bunch of bad guys, only to realize that you’ve just created fuel for something far more terrifying. Backed into a corner, who gets the next bullet? You’ll be facing this decision in Columbia if you’re unfortunate enough to get discovered by the Siren. Check out the clip below as Ken Levine, Nate Wells, and Shawn Robertson gives you a sneak peek…

So what do you think? Are you ready to face the Heavy Hitters? Either way, you’ll find out when BioShock Infinite launches October 16th, 2012

#bioshock In the above video, Irrational Games introduces the Siren—a creepy baddie who is able to raise the dead. More »

I’d hate to have supernatural powers. What if there’s a supernatural equivalent of a sneeze? You’re driving along in your Crueltymobile, or whatever it is evil people do when they’re not battling others, then: “Ahhh-Ahhh-AHHHH-CHOO” and all of a sudden every kitten in three blocks is now a giant, man-eating snarg. No, I’d rather remain mundane and in control of my surroundings, lest I suddenly develop hay fever. I’ll bet the Siren, the final Heavy Hitter in BioShock Infinite‘s series of boss reveals, can’t go anywhere near a graveyard, in case she burps and an army of undead are suddenly awoken and grumpy. The floating, ethereal, shrieking monster can raise the dead to fight Booker.(more…)

#bioshock Game designer Ken Levine was here in Washington, DC last week for the Art of Video Games festivities at the Smithsonian American Art Museum last week, and I had a chance to sit down with him and discuss Irrational's big upcoming project, BioShock Infinite. More »

BioShock Infinite's Boys of Summer to be revealed at a later date.

#bioshock In a normal situation, hanging out with the boys in the band is a welcome occasion. BioShock Infinite does not present a normal situation, and the Boys of Silence are not your average band geeks. More »

The Boys of Silence sound like an incredible New Romantic band so I was slightly disappointed to find that they’re actually blind men with two gramophones soldered onto their heads. If ever a game needed less mechaniman monstrosities and more synth pop, Bioshock: Infinite is that game. With these cantankerous “walking cameras” that emit the shriek of a thousand sirens and Mr Tickle’s dangerous yet sorrowful offspring it’s a world full of ruined metal men. What do they do for fun? Brief footage of a Boy of Silence below, along with Mr Levine and others enthusing about the concept.

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A motorized George Washington with a machine gun is worrisome, sure. And that dude with his giant porcelain hands? More menacing than Washington, no doubt. We think you'll agree, however, that BioShock Infinite's latest "heavy hitter," the "Boys of Silence" are by far the creepiest of the game's big boss dudes.

If you’ve been watching IrrationalGames.com, you may have seen a series of videos debuting BioShock Infinite‘s unique BioShock Infinite antagonists you’ll be facing in the city of Columbia — we’ve dubbed them Heavy Hitters. We wanted to make sure PlayStation.Blog readers were looped in on the fun as well, so today we’re stopping by to debut the third installment of Heavy Hitters. It’s time to cover your ears: Here come the Boys of Silence!

But the third installment of Heavy Hitters may surprise you. Instead of using brute force and heavy artillery, these guys only use sound — it’s all they’ll need to get your adrenaline flowing as you check your ammo and run for cover. When encountering the Boys of Silence, Booker and Elizabeth can choose to sneak past these sentries or engage them directly to silence them forever. Just don’t give them a chance to summon reinforcements…

In case you missed the other videos in our Heavy Hitters series, catch up with our first episode below, where Irrational Games introduces you the indomitable, fearless Motorized Patriot and the very first enemy most fans saw in the BioShock Infinite announcement trailer: the gigantic yet agile Handyman. Man? Machine? Hand model? You’ll have to find out for yourself when the game launches October 16th, 2012.

BioShock Infinite's version of Big Daddies sometimes resemble George Washington, and other times they're terrifying giants with exposed hearts and enormous porcelain hands. Go figure! Take a look at the latter group in the latest trailer, just above.

Levine describes this latest “heavy hitter” character as “sort of a tragic figure.” The video goes some way to explaining why: a heavily-scarred gentleman trapped in a giant, ape-like robotic suit, at the centre of which is what appears to be a heart in a glass case. Threatening, indeed, but you really wouldn’t want to share his fate. There’s a bit of footage, and even a few glimpses of concept art for what the handyman could have been in other, hideous incarnations.(more…)

#bioshock In the first "Heavy Hitters" video for BioShock Infinite we met evil robot George Washington. In this second video Ken Levine and crew introduce us to the Handyman, one of the first villains we saw in the game's trailers, and possibly the last one we'll see in game. More »

#bioshock BioShock Infinite will tell a different tale every time you play it, director Ken Levine says. More »

He's never told a lie, because he kills you before he can tell one.

It's called 'the snowball effect.' One piece of information grows into something greater than it was ever meant to be. This effect can take hold even when the information is incorrect to begin with. This was the case when the PlayStation UK site claimed a special Move device was being released alongside the PS3 version of BioShock Infinite.

"My understanding of what happened with that was some marketing person at Sony said, 'Oh, I think there's a Move peripheral for this.' And they put it out there and we saw it and were just like, 'Uh. Really? We never heard of that before," Ken Levine told me last week.

Levine admits that errors like this happen "a lot."

BioShock Infinite is by far the game I’m most excited about this year. I’m torn between wanting to know everything, and wanting it to be a surprise, but that plan was somewhat undermined by being sent to New York to cover the reveal of the game. My attempts to wipe it from my brain by drinking lots of vodka and dancing with Kieron (we linked arms and kicked legs) around a restaurant failed. Instead I’m burdened with The Knowledge, and an insatiable desire to know more. Last night’s reveal of the Motorised Patriot, part a new class of enemy called Heavy Hitter, I added to my Levine Shrine. He talked to G4 of how the Patriot is a fearless killing machine, and how the Heavy Hitters “… are enemies that are used to not just be more powerful, but to augment the abilities of the more traditional BioShock enemies. You’re going to come across them in certain areas of the game, and they’re going to provide a really unique challenge.” Everything we know about the floating World’s Fair, including footage of the patriot in action, is below.(more…)

#bioshock Meet the Motorized Patriot. More »