[Multiplatform] Bioshock. Available on Wii 12/5/2010

Originally Posted by BZ

...by the developers who created the System Shock series.

Actually (and no disrespect intended) Ken Levine and the guys at Irrational were commissioned by Looking Glass to create the sequel System Shock 2. System Shock itself is Warren Spector's brain child, he created it when he was still with Origin Systems. At that, has anyone been keeping track of the interviews Levine has done? A lot of what he's been saying has been what I've been waiting for as far as game design and theory is concerned.

It also makes for some actual journalism, at least considering how much gaming news is just a promotional device these days.

Levine made an excellent point on the distinction between dialog trees and a player's actual actions in game. I found it really poignant when compared to a lot of the games in today's market. Though I think he was specifically aiming the portion of this interview at games like KotoR and Jade Empire, hopefully the message gets through beyond a vague potshot.

Quote:

Ken Levine: I don't believe moral choices in games have a huge amount of meaning if they don't go hand in hand with gameplay choices.

It's definitely a relief to know that killing and doing in game will have a greater impact than just saying or doing something a specific point in time. An idea like this would actually be great to apply in games like Shin Megami Tensei (hell, most of Atlus' R&D1 games).

I'm hoping that Bioshock is commercially successful along with being (again, hopefully) a great game. I've been waiting for a game like this for so long, and after Thief 3 disappointed me in some respect, this game feels to be a potential continuation of the great PC gaming we saw toward the late 90s and the beginning of 2000.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Something has to be said for who birthed the concept in the first place. I mean, fine and dandy if you want it to be a "team" thing, I know that Ken Levine didn't do all of Bioshock or System Shock 2... what I'm getting at is that games like Deus Ex, Wing Commander, Ultima Underworld, System Shock are usually recognized as being created conceptually by Warren Spector. He's like the Spielberg of Video Games (good and bad). Just trying to keep the facts straight.

Sadly not the reaction I had wanted to illicit. Meh.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm curious as to who's getting the PC or X-Box 360 version. Kind of teetering on the 360 version mostly because I don't have a PC that's capable of running the damned thing well right now.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Looks like I'm buying both, Tokubetsu.

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Slayer, the atmosphere of the game was one of the main points being hyped up by Ken Levine during interviews. The whole game revolves around decision making, exploration/experimentation/discovery, and the immersion factor resulting from these things. Constant "Grab you by the balls" action would kind of inhibit this.

So, yeah, what Tokubetsu said.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Tagonist

but ultimately the gameplay doesn't offer anything innovative or new, nothing that hasn't been done better by others before.

This notion implies that there have been billions of System Shock games released or something. I can't remember a time where Ken Levine and his team hadn't implied that they wanted to make a spiritual sequel to System Shock 2... and how a lot of the stuff they just wanted to refine. The majority of your list of "this is a bad game" reasons are ethereal and cowardly. Yes, you have an opinion, dear god don't go telling everyone at once.

You know what, fuck that. Yeah, you didn't like it, yet you make constant comparisons to Doom 3 and can't quite realize that Doom 3 was derivative of System Shock, not the other way around.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?