Bioshock Infinite (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

I have it for PS3 and I don't remember if it had anything special. I'm also too lazy to check. Interesting fun fact: Irrational Games was changed to 2K Boston after Bioshock came out for PC/360 but was changed back to Irrational Games after the PS3 release, meaning Bioshock 1 for PS3 is the only game made by "2K Boston".

 

[DaveF]

I'm maybe halfway through, hit a good plot twist and getting a tease as to how weird this game might get. It makes me wonder:Would I be willing to pay $60 for a walkthrough story? No fighting, no searching for inventory, no level ups. No tedious backtracking and getting lost. No wondering losing lives and wishing for a save point. But an evolution in story telling; an interactive novel, a walk-about movie.I think I'd be willing to try that now.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I completely agree, and that's what I find disappointing about the whole experience. The parts of Bioshock Infinite that make it a game are the least interesting parts.

Sidenote - there is a "chapters" option from the main menu that allows you to skip to specific parts of the game. This fixes the "I can't save manually whenever I want to so that I can later replay cool parts" complaint.

 

[mattCR]

I'm maybe halfway through, hit a good plot twist and getting a tease as to how weird this game might get. It makes me wonder:Would I be willing to pay $60 for a walkthrough story? No fighting, no searching for inventory, no level ups. No tedious backtracking and getting lost. No wondering losing lives and wishing for a save point. But an evolution in story telling; an interactive novel, a walk-about movie.I think I'd be willing to try that now.

And this is why "Myst" was so successful years ago. LucasArts had that genre nailed with things like "The Dig" and "Full Throttle". Seirra On Line had a few just like that.. Gabriel Knight I/II..

It's a Genre I wish would come back as well.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Dave, what did you think of Heavy Rain or LA Noire?

 

[DaveF]

And this is why "Myst" was so successful years ago. LucasArts had that genre nailed with things like "The Dig" and "Full Throttle". Seirra On Line had a few just like that.. Gabriel Knight I/II..It's a Genre I wish would come back as well.

Dave, what did you think of Heavy Rain or LA Noire?

Haven't played them. And Heavy Rain is PS3 only.

And this is why "Myst" was so successful years ago. LucasArts had that genre nailed with things like "The Dig" and "Full Throttle". Seirra On Line had a few just like that.. Gabriel Knight I/II..It's a Genre I wish would come back as well.

those are puzzle solving games, which add a different tedium to the story. I played some infocom as a kid, but I haven't had the patience for those games in a long time.No, I'm talking about a pure storytelling. No skills needed beyond being able to navigate a 3D computer world.

 

[DaveF]

Dave, what did you think of Heavy Rain or LA Noire?

LA Noire is $20, new. So added it to my wishlist for future consideration I'd like to play Heavy Rain. It was featured in the video games exhibit last year, at the Smithsonian museum of art.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

No, I'm talking about a pure storytelling. No skills needed beyond being able to navigate a 3D computer world.

What would that experience really add over just watching a movie? You mean like a Choose Your Own Adventure?

I didn't have the patience for Infocom games back then either!

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I think Bioshock Infinite could use less violence or at least have a better way to incorporate and justify it. From the interviews and previews and reviews I've read, it seems that Ken Levine (the creative director of the franchise) basically thinks the game is first person and, thus, should be a shooter, plus he likes aspects of games where there is a skill involved to succeed, plus he needs to appeal to CoD-bro gamers. That's all really disappointing.

Good thing the shooting isn't TERRIBLE and the parts in between are great.

 

[DaveF]

What would that experience really add over just watching a movie? You mean like a Choose Your Own Adventure? I didn't have the patience for Infocom games back then either!

it would be a difference storytelling experience. It allows non-linear story-telling. Discovery story-telling. The user can dwell on scenes or rush though them, like in a book, whereas a movie is paced solely by the director. It would allow a 20 hr story, compared to a 2 hr movie. It's more like a TV series than a movie.Reflecting on the great games I've played, such as Bioshock, Half Life, and Portal...I can see the possibility for a game-based story. Maybe it wouldn't actually work. Or it would be a complete market failure. But I'm interested. This is also based on my interests. 20 years ago, when I gamed, I could invest deeply in a game and play it to death. I was willing to fight through th tedium of jumping puzzles. But not now. I don't prioritize games nor play regularly enough to become deeply skilled to beat a hard game. So games that the hardcore bash as too easy, I find more fun, since I can get through to the end.

 

[DaveF]

I think Bioshock Infinite could use less violence or at least have a better way to incorporate and justify it. From the interviews and previews and reviews I've read, it seems that Ken Levine (the creative director of the franchise) basically thinks the game is first person and, thus, should be a shooter, plus he likes aspects of games where there is a skill involved to succeed, plus he needs to appeal to CoD-bro gamers. That's all really disappointing. Good thing the shooting isn't TERRIBLE and the parts in between are great.

i find the action confusing. Enemy locations are purposefull obscured by saturated light sources. The path to them through the 3D environment is difficult to determine. And having only two guns and two Vigors means I generally have exactly the wrong guns, exacerbated by having invested in gun upgrades for guns now being less useful. It seems it wants you to replay the fights, to learn, find your best path, and enjoy it iteratively. Except the autosave system makes that impossible. You get one pass through, and the you're done.The design feels deeply conflicted. It's not terrible. But it's not great. And at the same time, it clea

 

[Sam Posten]

Started playing last night. Long walking intro section kinda bored me, overly violent melee attack seems gratuitous, preaching to the already agnostic here regarding religion (heh) and hasn't hooked me at all. Not feeling it yet.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I hear ya on the time factor. It's been weeks since I've played anything other than MLB The Show or NBA2K.

Of course, the good news is that a major reason for this is that my kid is WAY more athletic than his old man, and I've been very busy coaching his baseball and basketball teams.

 

[Sam Posten]

Oh and the racism angle felt ham fisted to me, does that turn around?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The racism didn't feel hamfisted to me, but I guess that any amount of racism would feel hamfisted since, you know, we're not used to it. I wouldn't say it turns around, but rather it's not OMG IN YOUR FACE as much later.

I'm about 3/4 or so through and I have to say that around the halfway point the violence starts to seem justified, if not at least warranted. That said, The violence up to then doesn't seem as necessary and the developers might have been better off trying to find a way to tone it down up to there. I'm actually disappointed that there hasn't been more of the story since the crazy stuff (you'll know when you start to see it) is pretty interesting and I'm not sure how fleshed out it gets. That said, it might not make sense for the game to explain everything (like having two characters talk for 10 minutes just to explain something really complex) but I'm wondering if the game will end up trying to fit so much in it (Columbia, Comstock, Fitzroy, Patriotism, Racism, Revolution, Religion, and then the actual story and plot) that nothing seems to get developed well enough. Except Columbia, because the setting is pretty awesome.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

There's a boardgame version on the way that looks pretty interesting:

http://www.plaidhatgames.com/games/bioshock-infinite-the-siege-of-columbia

(No sooner do I mention that I haven't played much of anything lately than my son asks if I can play Assassin's Creed so he can watch while he's getting ready for bed. Go figure!)

 

[mattCR]

Oh, who has the link to that 3 Hour of just the story cut scenes on Youtube? I'd love to see it in just that format now that I'm almost finished.

 

[Type A]

Rented this from red box over the weekend and got about 10 hours into it. Good game but really miss the little sisters and fighting to get them from the big daddys. Also miss the trap rivets and mini turrets, made prepping for adam gathering a lot of fun. New AI seems to takes cover good but they still dont seem as smart or have as much character as the previous two games.

 

[mattCR]

Finished it. The ending is kind of a mess (IMHO), but I get what they were going for, I just don't think it works as well as they do.

 

[DaveF]

After a 3 week (unplanned) hiatus because vacation and then work post vacation...I'm back to it. Where am I...I've just learned the mystery behind the odd man and woman who keep popping up since the early scene where they are tallying coin tosses. I really enjoy the game. I have no regret over paying full retail. But the combat only gets more annoying. I can't make sense of it. Part of it is my core gaming experience is keyboard and mouse for FPS. I've never been fully comfortable with console controller for this type of action. I wish the search and find could be improved. I play through an exciting combat experience (replete with five or more resurrections) and finally kill all the bad guys. And then the game comes to a halt as I spend as much time re-wandering the room, looking in shadows for all the trash cans and corpses, searching for silver eagles. And I have to do this, to accumulate wealth to upgrade Vigors, to advance the game. This kills the momentum. As they streamlined the game by cutting out manual saves, I think the searching should be all but eradicated.