BioShock 2 Message Board older than one year ago

Start of aggressive downloadable content campaign to expand the single and multiplayer elements of the award-winning game.

Having printed and shipped more than 3 million copies of BioShock 2 across the seas, publisher Take-Two is clearly leaning on its sequel to provide a strong sale wind to push the company through another successful quarter. Following its February 9 release, the Xbox 360 version of BioShock 2 cruised up the US sales charts, anchoring in the peak position, according to the NPD's monthly report. For the PS3 version, the journey was not such a breeze, as it appeared to have come up against some bad weather.

Despite the Xbox 360 edition's #1 ranking in US February game sales, the PS3 version of BioShock 2 was curiously absent from the top ten listing. An NPD representative told Joystiq that the PS3 game recorded roughly 190.5k units sold last month, "just outside the top 10 at #11." If anything's to blame for this somewhat modest debut month, it's Heavy Rain. In just one week of retail availability, the PS3-exclusive "Western Interactive Novel" had enough of an impact, with 219.3k units sold, to seemingly alter the sales course of BioShock 2 for PS3.

Now, just image how much trouble a rampaging "murder carousel" could stir up for BioShock 2 PS3 sales this month!

Modern Warfare 2 keeps on rolling, Heavy Rain impresses.

#column I shamelessly invaded your Xbox Dashboard last week – and now that my thumb fatigue has expired, I'm here to tell you about it.  More »

Professional level designer J.P. LeBreton's creativity can't just be contained by the BioShock franchise which his work has appeared in for the last three years. So, he recently exercised his craft in a fairly peculiar way -- by designing a Doom 2 map modeled after the two areas on which he served as lead designer for 2K's underseas adventure: Arcadia and the Farmer's Market.

You can download the map directly from LeBreton's site. It comes bundled in a handy little .ZIP file which includes instructions on how to get it up and running on your modern gaming rig. If you're having trouble, just put the original BioShock in, and smear a thick sheen of petroleum jelly on your monitor.

[Via Big Download]

Next Thursday, those entrenched in The Great Splicer Uprising of '59 will get a chance to beef up their arsenal in Bioshock 2's multiplayer mode with the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack on March 11. Here's what you'll get for your 400 ($5) on Xbox Live and Games For Windows - Live, and $4.99 on PSN:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
• Five additional masks (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)

Happy Splicer hunting! (Splunting?)

Next Thursday, those entrenched in The Great Splicer Uprising of '59 will get a chance to beef up their arsenal in Bioshock 2's multiplayer mode with the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack on March 11. Here's what you'll get for your 400 ($5) on Xbox Live and Games For Windows - Live, and $4.99 on PSN:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
• Five additional masks (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)

Happy Splicer hunting! (Splunting?)

New characters, masks, weapon upgrades incoming.

#bioshock2 The Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack, the first in a series of single and multiplayer downloadable content for Bioshock 2, hits Games for Windows Live, the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace March 11 for about $5. More »

2K's sequel off to a good start.

Take-Two has revealed in its latest fiscal earnings report that Bioshock 2 has managed to ship three million units worldwide since releasing on February 9. The report also says the first game has now sold over four million copies worldwide across all platforms, "bringing the total sales of the franchise to 7 million units." Of course, the important distinction here is that "shipped" does not equal "sold," as Take-Two infers above.

Still, getting three million copies out there into the world is a pretty noteworthy feat. Get yourself a couple more million and you'll be able to finance construction on your own underwater metropolis, not that any good could possibly come of it.

[BioshockFan52]
Those of us who have played BioShock 2 likely don't see anything out of the ordinary in the above image. Almost all of Rapture's propoganda has been smeared by Sophia Lamb and her followers in-game, so it only makes sense that 2K would do as much with the game's promotional items. And according to this thread on the 2K Games site, a black light is all you need to unlock this hidden feature in those neat posters you got with your special edition.

Community Manager "2K Elizabeth" (Elizabeth Tobey) implies the validity of what you see above -- we're still waiting on 2K to officially confirm this. But, for all intents and purposes, it would seem your love of velvet paintings and black lights is a good thing for once!

[Thanks, Alex]

When you come right down to it, genetic engineering is about the only shot humans are going to have at developing real super powers. Which is why BioShock and BioShock 2 are more than just stories about some nifty underwater city gone wrong. When you have people that can move objects with their minds or blast fire from their hands and then stick them in a gorgeous dystopia, that's when you've got a story.

So what better way to celebrate that world than by bringing it into our own? With that in mind, we're offering up a mess of BioShock swag: one BioShock "Don't Wait! Incinerate!" women's shirt (size medium), one BioShock 2 Butterfly Hands men's shirt (size small), two different BioShock lithographs, and one extremely cool, handmade Splicer mask. Check out the prizes in the gallery below, and read the rules to enter.

• Leave a comment telling us what plasmid power you'd want. Feel free to make up your own.
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, mostly due to our exclusion from a "statut particulier" status in Canada).
• Limit 1 entry per person per day.
• This entry period ends at 7:01PM ET on Monday, March 1.
• At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one BioShock 2 men's butterfly shirt, size small (ARV $10), one BioShock 2 women's "Incinerate!" shirt, size medium (ARV $10), two BioShock lithographs (ARV $15 each), and one handmade Splicer mask (ARV $50).
• For a list of complete rules, click here.

What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

#clips I don't believe I've seen anything quite as beautiful as a man dressed as Jason from Friday the 13th carving the Big Daddy from BioShock 2 out of a tree using a chainsaw. More »

We're not gonna lie to you -- we were initially tempted to write this post in full-on mid-'90s late night TV ad format, but we instead chose restraint in telling people about the BioShock 2 sale going on over at Newegg. For just $49, you can snag a copy of the (at least somewhat) critically acclaimed return to Rapture on either Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 over the 72 hours that Newegg's sale takes place (just under 60 left as of this writing).

If the recently released DLC weren't enough to entice you to dive in to BioShock's sequel, maybe $11 off the asking price will do it, eh? (Because a man finds sweet sales, a slave buys at full price ... or something.)

Second verse better than the first, or Conveyor Belt of Murder 2: Sea of Communism.

Does the sequel stack up to the original?

Folks who elected to resubmerge themselves into the world of Rapture using a computer have had to suffer a pretty serious display issue -- due to a last minute bug fix, the PC version of BioShock 2 shipped without proper widescreen monitor support. The game would simply slap a letterbox on the 4:3 display, limiting the player's field of view. Fortunately, a patch released today adds 16:9 and 16:10 resolution support to the game's repertoire, meaning you'll finally be able to see that Splicer that's been creeping alongside you for the past few days.

The patch also fixes an issue in which "holding the M1 button would not register in Multiplayer gameplay," which sounds equally serious. Those are the only two fixes in the available update; however, 2K community manager Elizabeth Tobey promises "a larger, more extensive patch" is currently in the works.

[Via Videogamer]

2K has plans for both singleplayer and multiplayer.

2K Games has announced that expansions for BioShock 2 are "slated to arrive over the coming months," expanding both the single-player and multiplayer facets of the game. The custodians of Rapture have yet to reveal what's in store for the single-player campaign, but have offered details on the first new multiplayer add-on: the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack.

Available "soon" for 400 ($5) on Xbox Live and $4.99 on PSN, the pack will include:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
• Five additional masks (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)

We just hope 2K Games takes care of those freezing issues before luring us back to the Circus of Values.

How the sequel gives gamers a reason to care.

Did the sequel surpass or fall short of the amazing original?

Jon Blyth discovers Big Sisters really are doing it for themselves.

[Image credit: Negative Gamer] Allow me to break from the usual third-person writing style we employ at Joystiq to address my personal stake in writing this post -- I'm part of the approximately 10 percent of human males with colorblindness. I had to return Super Puzzle Fighter for GBA and turn on the symbols in Hexic (the price I pay for the love of puzzle games). Like Russ at MTV Multiplayer, I (quite likely) have the most common form of colorblindness: Deuteranopia.

Personal info aside, Negative Gamer put together a bit of an analysis of BioShock 2's hacking system -- a system which applies color matching to various rewards/punishments (green = hack, blue = reward, red = alarm, white = electric shock) and one which could be problematic for those suffering from colorblindnesses many forms. The piece takes a program called "Colour Contrast Analyser" (yes, it's a British-born application) and runs an example image of the hacking program through it, pointing out how the colors would appear to people with a variety of types of colorblindness -- the image you see above is but one example.

So! If you've ever wondered what it's like to deal with the frustration of being colorblind and not being able to play a game because of it, now's your big chance. If you want to start a petition to "fix" the situation like these folks did for Modern Warfare 2, I'd really appreciate it.

[Via MTV Multiplayer]

We've received a number of reports from readers who've been participating in BioShock 2's multiplayer component and succumbing to a variety of game-crashing bugs. The reported causes of the freezing are widespread -- some Xbox 360 players encounter it during the post-game recap, while some have reported freezing up while in their apartment hubs. We've contacted 2K to find out if anything is being done to patch whatever issue might be causing the breakdowns.

We were going to make a joke about the freezes being caused by the overzealous use of the Winter Blast plasmid, but that would have been one of the dumbest things we'd ever written.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

The return to Rapture may not be as universally exalted as the original adventure, but nevertheless reviewers tend to agree it's a journey worth taking (again). The enchanting aesthetic of the game world appears to have remained intact in this sequel, which doesn't veer far from the original's tone, despite delivering a different message. So, would you kindly dive below and observe what critics have said of Rapture's reemergence:

• IGN (91/100): "Anyone looking for a first-person shooter that offers more than flat, stereotypical characters and copy-and-paste supersoldier plots, one that attempts to establish a sense of right and wrong and loops you into the decision making process, and one that's set in one of the most vividly realized settings around should pick up BioShock 2."
• GameDaily (90/100): "Much of it looks and feels familiar, but 2K Games proved that there is a whole other side of Rapture worth exploring, as well as new and interesting stories to tell. Gripping, wondrous and at times horrifying, it's a superb effort that opens the door for perhaps another game, but don't worry about that."
• GameSpot (85/100): "Rapture may not be as mysterious and intriguing this second time around, but it is nonetheless host to a powerful and moving tale that allows you to better realize -- or pervert -- [Andrew] Ryan's principles at your own discretion. Regardless of whether or not this is a return visit to paradise lost, there is plenty to be found here to make it a worthwhile, meaningful, and compelling one."
• Eurogamer (80/100): "Your passage through Rapture may not be a matter of free will - a challenge someone surely ought to take up with this series -- but BioShock 2 argues even within the strictures of fate that mercy and compassion or bitterness and revenge ring loud enough to echo through the lives of those who follow. The result is a less openly provocative game than its predecessor, and one that will capture less attention, but while it may be damned for subtlety it is every bit as deceptive, and perhaps that's the greater of the series' illusions regardless of what else a BioShock sequel might have become."

Are you hep to this jive? You can dial into BioShock 2's Rapture Radio right now and listen to kitschy classics from the '30s, '40s and '50s. Tap your toes and waggle your fingers in the air with songs like Fred Astaire's "We Saw The Sea," and, according to 2K Games, you should "be sure to tune into the festivities at 12 pm EST tonight for the Rapture Masquerade Ball!"

It's not clear if we'll hear the sounds of festive celebration or the screams of the torturous murder come the strike of midnight. The radio station teases you to "Come down to the Cashmere Restaurant at midnight, where the rich and beautiful will dance their cares away!" Given the history of Rapture, that doesn't seem likely. In the meantime, tune in here via iTunes or Winamp, or here for the Windows Media Player flavor.

Sequel to the 2007 Game of the Year welcomes players back to the decayed magnificence of Rapture with rave reviews from the industry's top critics.

The following comes to us from the BioShock Wiki:

"Big Daddies are genetically-enhanced human beings who have had their skin and organs grafted into an enormous diving suit. The candidates also go through voice box modification and pheromone application. They are then placed in large vats with a substance that effectively turns them into mindless drones. With gene splicing, the humans inside the suits were given enhanced strength and agility."

... Or they could have just paid 320 points ($4) on Xbox Live. Jeez, we guess Andrew Ryan wasn't so smart after all. (Related note: If you spend $4 on a Big Daddy costume for your Avatar, you are, legally speaking, no longer entitled to the sweat of your own brow. Sorry.)

BioShock didn't need a sequel.
I know it, you know it; heck, I'd bet if they were being totally honest, the staff of 2K Marin would tell you they knew it too. BioShock was that rare combination of a perfectly realized world, fresh yet refined action and a narrative that left me with no real burning questions. It didn't need a sequel.

But all that has very little to do with BioShock 2 because whether it needed to be made or not, it's here now. And the surprise isn't that someone other than Irrational had the chutzpah to make a BioShock sequel. The surprise is just how worthwhile it is.