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BioShock Post-Launch Updates

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: First Person Shooters, PC, Xbox 360,

BioShock Big Daddy and Little Sister

has, in the days since it’s release, received a seemingly equal amount of praise and criticism. While reviewers are raving about the game’s polish and atmosphere, some gamers have been griping about the way the game handles widescreen displays and some of the DRM issues on the PC version. And as was perhaps inevitable, someone in the mainstream media started some stink about the game’s moral dilemma involving harvesting versus saving the Little Sisters.

Irrational/2K Boston’s spoke with Joystiq about these and other post-launch issues, essentially coming clean that there were some mistakes made on their end, but confirming that they were committed to making things right. He also confirms that there isn’t any version in the works despite the reference to the platform found in a configuration file. Regarding the Little Sister concern, Levine says:

This is a game about making your own choices and consequences. It doesn’t take things lightly. Somebody should just sit down and observe the sequence of harvesting a Little Sister. It is about the most thoughtful presentation and most carefully executed presentation of the subject. It is strictly about getting the emotional content across without unnecessary violent content. There are people on the flip side who want to chase down a Little Sister with the gun, if they want that, they’re playing the wrong game.

Click to continue reading BioShock Post-Launch Updates

Read More | Joystiq

Gallery: BioShock Post-Launch Updates


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Ken Levine on Hacking in BioShock: “It’s a Little Out There.”

Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Action, Adventure, First Person Shooters, PC, Puzzle, Take2, Xbox 360,

BioShock hacking screen

Everybody loves BioShock.  From the whale-like moans of the Big Daddy to the thrill of smashing a frozen Splicer into little bits, the game is quality.  However, one aspect of the game that isn’t thrilling everyone is its hacking mechanism; if you want to break into a safe or turn enemy turrets into your own mechanized defense force, you first must succeed at a hacking minigame that plays a lot like the Lucasfilm Games classic, Pipe Dream.  Well, as it turns out, BioShock’s own big daddy, Ken Levine, is also not in love with the mechanic.  Shacknews sat down with Levine for an interview and got his take on it.

It’s a little out there. That’s why it was important that you could bypass it in two ways; you can buy it out or you can use the hack tools—or you can just ignore it. There’s only one hack you have to do in the game.

But I think if we could go back and do it again, we would have maybe rethought that a little bit. I think it was more a function of our limitations at the beginning of the project when we had a very limited budget, and then we zoomed in so many other areas that we sort of forgot to go back to that area.

The purely non-spoiler interview, linked below, goes on to cover all things BioShock and is well worth reading.

Read More | Shacknews

Gallery: Ken Levine on Hacking in BioShock: “It’s a Little Out There.”


BioShock Art Book Available Online…for Free!

Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Action, Adventure, First Person Shooters, Games for Windows, Microsoft, Take2, Xbox 360,

Bioshock Art BookComing hot on the heels of a truly tremendous Xbox Live demo, 2K Boston/2K Australia (formerly Irrational Games) has posted a free PDF file which contains sixty-odd pages of concept art from the game to be printed out at your leisure.  How cool is that?  Word of warning, however: Ken Levine’s forward to the book contains spoilers, so tread carefully.

BioShock is poised to blow minds on Xbox 360 and Windows in just seven days.

Read More | 2K Games

Gallery: BioShock Art Book Available Online…for Free!


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