System Shock 2 Message Board

Just a few years ago, people were begging for the System Shock 2 legal situation to be resolved. It wasn’t a technical problem, but a legal death trap of rights that entangled its feet, keeping it just out of grasp as we all reached out to save it. And then it was suddenly in our hands, and we could all have the game on the digital distribution platform of our choosing. With that resolved, it seemed that the story of System Shock 2 was over. But wait *shocking twist music*, like a hand shooting out of a grave, there’s one final moment for SS2 to surprise us: a new update that lands it on Linux. It is available right now on Steam.

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GOG is running an interesting promotion where select games are being offered, one at a time, for up to 80% off. But here's the weird part: GOG is offering the deals in limited quantities. "But, wait, how can it run out of games if they're being digitally distributed?" Good question, Timmy. Also, your name is Timmy now. Make sure you tell your loved ones.

The sale will go until "GOG.com is out of games," the press release past the break states. In our brief amount of time monitoring the sale page, it seems the games will rotate as each sells through 250 copies. Hotline Miami, System Shock 2, Rayman Origins, Baldur's Gate, Fez, Alpha Centauri and more will find their way into the sales spotlight during this promotion, and GOG even promises a few free games will be sprinkled in for good measure.

The GOG promotion is currently underway so feel free to head on over to see what's in the sale spotlight right now.

Another day, another round of deals in the Steam summer sale. Today's highlights include Football Manager 2013 for $10, DmC: Devil May Cry for $25, Alan Wake for $3, System Shock 2 for $2.50, Orcs Must Die 2 for $3.74, Sleeping Dogs for $6.24 and Mark of the Ninja for only $3.74.

The daily flash deals - which rotate every eight hours - also has some choice discounts, ripe for the plucking. Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Serious Sam 3 are both only $4 apiece, while Scribblenauts Unlimited is $5 and Assassin's Creed 3 has been marked down to $24.

We all have our embarrassing secrets. For instance, Jim has never hopped, too scared to take such a risk with gravity. Adam never realised you were supposed to apologise to ducks. And I’ve never played System Shock 2. It’s not my fault – I was busy. But with my first gap in my schedule since August 1999, I’ve been having a go at the freshly re-released version on Steam. It’s… it’s not easy, is it?

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System Shock 2 is now available on Steam for $6.99. The first-person survival-horror game is 30 percent off until May 17.

System Shock 2 found its way to the platform courtesy of Night Dive Studios, the outfit who picked up the rights as the game's publisher in February, when System Shock 2 also launched on GOG.com. To those of you that have yet to play this game: You're running out of excuses.

System Shock 2 is Now Available on Steam and is 30% off

System Shock™ 2 is a genre defining experience that established innovative game-play mechanics that are a staple of the FPS and RPG genre today. It has gone on to inspire some of the greatest titles of our generation with games including Deus Ex and Bioshock

Discover how a haunting story, innovative game-play and a terrifying atmosphere has made System Shock™ 2 one of the greatest games of all time.

"Remember, it is my will that guided you here. It is my will that gave you your cybernetic implants, the only beauty in that meat you call a body. If you value that meat... you will do as I tell you."

*Offer ends May 17th at 10AM Pacific Time

That tingle you feel down your spine? System Shock 2 is now available for download on GOG.com. If you've never played System Shock 2, know it's not only one of the most influential horror games of all time, but one of the first games to make Ken Levine a household name in our household where we can't stop talking about Ken Levine.

System Shock 2 is available as a $9.99 download through GOG right now, compatible with Windows PCs. System Shock 2 is, at its core, a game about crossing barriers and embracing unconventional love, probably, so it's perfect for a Valentine's evening.

It's been a long time coming, but System Shock 2 has finally emerged from publishing limbo and will soon arrive on GOG.com and Steam. The rights were secured by Night Dive Studios, and the game will be released via GOG on Wednesday at 6:00am. At a mere $10, it should make a wonderful, horrifying Valentine's Day gift. The timing of the Steam release remains a mystery.

For those unfamiliar with the 1999 PC classic, System Shock 2 is a first-person survival horror game with RPG elements. It was developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios, and it was designed by none other than Ken Levine (perhaps you've heard of him). If you need another point of reference, the BioShock series is considered a spiritual successor to System Shock. You like BioShock, right?

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a rather lengthy piece detailing how Night Dive managed to secure the rights and what to expect from the GOG.com release. The download will feature a great deal of bonus content, including concept art, an interview with Ken Levine and more. Again though, the takeaway is pretty simple: As of tomorrow, System Shock 2 is back, waiting for you to play it all over again or - if you're lucky - for the very first time.

Today, Good Old Games announce that they will finally, and exclusively, be selling a digital download version of System Shock 2. It will be available tomorrow. I envy those who can now play for the first time, but there is no longer an excuse not to indulge in yet another playthrough of one of the finest and most frightening games ever made. I spoke to Stephen Kick of Night Dive, who secured the rights and worked on the release, and Guillaume Rambourg at GOG.com. How did all of this come about and what is System Shock 2′s place in gaming, past, present and future?

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If all goes according to plan, I’ll pull the trigger on ordering parts for my computer over the weekend, and finally put into motion an idea I’ve been kicking around for a couple of years now. It’s been so, so long since I’ve built a PC, though, so I’ve forgotten...everything. I’ve heard your requests, too, and we’ll probably film putting it together and bringing it to life. Nothing can go wrong with that, right?

As mentioned in the last episode of Spookin’ With Scoops, where we played the first hour or so of System Shock 2, that feature will take a rest until the PC comes together, which means it probably won’t come back until after Thanksgiving. Even with a powerful PC, that doesn’t mean we’ll leave behind a return to Lone Survivor, System Shock 2, or even Friday the 13th and Clock Tower for SNES. It will, however, mean closing out episodes with Slender won’t look like a total trainwreck.

A few weeks away from horror will do my heart some good, too. You can only take so much.

Hey, You Should Play This

• Save the Day by Denki (Browser / Free) -- www.turbulenz.com/games/save-the-day/play

It’s early days for browser games, but Save the Day, a fast-paced action game in which players fly a helicopter and save people from imminent disaster, make a solid case for what’s possible when competent developers are in the drivers seat. It doesn’t have to be all exploitative free-to-play games that are more about wasting time than they are about learning and enjoying game mechanics. Let’s also remember Supergiant Games managed to port Bastion to Chrome’s app store on HTML5. It’ll be some time before we’re seeing a game like Bastion made from the ground up for a browser, but the potential audience is enormous, and it’s only a matter of time before someone makes a killing.

There are also two other games I’m going to link to below, and I’ll say nothing more about them.

• I Don't Know What To Call This But Just Click It, Okay? (Browser / Free) -- detarou.web.fc2.com/game/ohayo.html
• Reel Railway (Browser / Free) -- www.realrailway.com/en/

And You Should Read These, Too

• "Halo 4 is half the game it should be" by Tom Chick for Quarter to Three

What do you want from your reviews? Do you want someone to reaffirm your preconceived notions about a game, or do you want to be challenged, and look at a game in a new light? Tom Chick’s review of Halo 4 would probably do a better job of accomplishing the latter if a score wasn’t attached, but the score is what made his review a lightning rod. Chick is used to being the industry’s punching bag, and publishing contradictory opinions is nothing new. I haven’t yet played Halo 4, so I can’t say whether or not I agree with his conclusions about the latest entry, but it’s a well articulated argument, and definitely an outlier from the general consensus. Does that make it wrong? (Hint: no.)

This is Halo 4. A shiny old dog without any new tricks. I got more out of the Halo 1 remake, which at least had the appeal of nostalgia. Playing through an updated version of the original Halo was at times tired or tedious. But it was also a reminder of the raw genius that launched the series. There is none of that in Halo 4, which is a drawn-out retread without any fresh perspective or energy, and furthermore missing a lot of what I need to pull me through a Halo game. Halo 4 demonstrates that if there’s one thing worse than more of the same, it’s less of the same.

• "How Ubisoft kept the lid on Assassin's Creed III's biggest spoiler" by Kyle Orland for Ars Technica

Games have trouble keeping secrets these days, and whatever you think of Assassin’s Creed III, it’s admirable the company was able to keep a lid on a particularly cool twist that comes early in the game. If you haven’t played Assassin’s Creed III, you should not click this link, but if you have, Ars Technica has talked to Ubisoft about the process of keeping a secret over a three-year development cycle and huge amounts of marketing. Not easy!

May says he didn't even discuss the big reveal with his closest friends or family—he just "couldn't take the risk." While he could talk about [CENSORED] with other members of the development team, that didn't really relieve the stress. "All we would end up doing was riling ourselves up. We were on thisthing, and we were all having the same fears and anxious nervous anticipation. That didn't make it any easier."

If You Click It, It Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

• Elite is the latest classic trying to come back. Would be nice if they showed, uh, anything about it.
• We need more physical spaces to show off video games. L.A. Game Space could be terrific.
• Wait, is Distance a spiritual successor to San Francisco Rush?

The Latest Assassin's Creed is Out, And There Are Mixed Opinions

• John Teti of Gameological can't muster many good things to say about Assassin's Creed III.
• Despite Kotaku running a positive review from another writer, Kirk Hamilton is disillusioned.

Valve Just Launched Greenlight, So Here’s Some Games That Don’t Look Terrible

• Dark Rain looks awfully early, but an open world horror game with a day/night cycle? Yes.
• Draw a Stickman has players getting involved by actually drawing objects into the world.
• Sapience is a modern attempt to create a DOOM-style sci-fi RPG. Those are golden words.

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• An interesting analysis of why GoldenEye 007 should have been a colossal failure.
• Polygon does a deep dive on the creation of the Skylanders games at Toys For Bob.
• Brendan Keogh is writing an entire book of critical analysis about Spec Ops: The Line.
• A developer talks about Nintendo's approach to encourages indies towards Wii U.
• My former boss, Stephen Totilo, uses Kotaku to provide a deep analysis of modern games journalism.
• A designer argues for easier achievements when thinking of a wider audience.
• The success and influence of Canabalt has escaped even its creator.
• Spelunky designer Derek Yu has created his interpretation of Battletoads...and it's *crag*ing awesome.
• Obama and Romney supporters go into battle in Medieval II.
• A collection of pixelated t-shirts representing different states. Wish Illinois wasn't sold out in my size.
• An interesting analysis of the huge decisions facing Sony with its next machine.

It's not Halloween, but just like China, Patrick don't care. It's pretty likely SHODAN does, though.

System Shock 2 and Thief 2 are regularly hailed as classics for a reason. They’re meticulously designed, tough but not unfair, and, well, they’ve been around for a gazillion years – at least, in gaming technology time. Unfortunately, our light-speed-traveling future machines take about as well to them as modern automobiles to giant stone Flintstones wheels. In other (pseudo) words, clunkity clunk clunk crash. But now – finally, wonderfully, mercifully – some kind soul’s seen fit to release unofficial patches that bring both games up to speed. And, according to early reports, they make some positively massive improvements.

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#systemshock Surprise! Out of almost thin air, a pair of unofficial patches have been released for PC classics System Shock 2 and Thief 2 that not only allow the games to be safely played on modern hardware, but look great while they're doing it. More »

Important qualifiers before you get over-excited by that headline!

- This is not System Shock 2′s game elements in the source engine, it’s simply the first level recreated in Source, with original assets presumably naughtily extracted to do so. As such, whatever comes of this project it can’t ultimately look like this. - It’s just one modder doing a proof of concept map/video rather than being a concerted effort to remake Shock 2. Though he hopes it’ll be “the catalyst that gets a dedicated group together to do a full remake, but we’ll see what happens.”(more…)

#bioshock Today's gamers crave choice. Choice in how they progress through a game; choice on how they develop their character. The gamers of 13 years ago needed not these things, which is why Irrational Games is including the punishing 1999 Mode in BioShock Infinite. More »

#science Some of gaming's most cunning foes have been computers. Think GlaDOS from Portal, or Shodan from System Shock 2. At least part of what makes them so memorable is that their artificial intelligence is brought to life by a cold, calculating, female voice. More »

#art Irrational Games, creators of BioShock, uncovered a long-lost treasure the other day: a sketchbook, full of concept art for the game that got the studio rolling, System Shock 2. More »

#mario Totally subjective question, of course, but movie mag Empire decided to try and answer anyway, its writers nutting out who they thought were the greatest video game characters of all time. The winner? It wasn't Mario. More »

Irrational Games continues to empty out its vault of memories and secrets over on its newly commissioned blog -- Ken Levine and the crew are revealing so much old insider information over there you have to wonder how long they'll keep it up. Today, it's "what might have been" on System Shock 2, as Levine relates what they would have liked to do with the SHODAN showdown game, given more time and resources. The game was originally designed as an Apocalypse Now-style assassination in space, and it included some zero-G gameplay ideas (that sound pretty similar to what Dead Space pulled off years later). The ending also had to be rewritten, as the cinematic that Levine got back didn't have much to do with the script that he had originally put together. And perhaps the most disturbing factoid is that the entire game was created in just 900 square feet of office space, full of overworked (and smelly) game developers. Wandering around the Von Braun was scary and all, but spending 11 months in a tiny room full of developers on crunch? No wonder Levine sounds ecstatic he survived.

Developer provides new insight into the classic PC game.