Bioshock 2 details - Please say it isn't so!

New details about Bioshock 2 emerging from the most recent issue of Game Informer.

http://www.ggmania.com/?smsid=26767

I won't bother listing any of the details, read the article and tell me what your thoughts are.

I personally find this information to be terribly disappointing. I'm not sure what I was expecting from a Bioshock sequel, but this sure as hell wasn't it!

Definitely not what I expected, but it does sound interesting! The guy posting that seemed to jump to conclusions at the end. We saw a few varieties of splicers in the game - just because Bioshock 2 has splicers doesn't mean there won't be lots of new varieties. Ditto for the plasmids.

Well, considering their past I will give Irrational Games my benefit of doubt. They have never made me disappointed so far.

Sorry for the Offtopic but shouldn't Bioshock 2 be included in Watch's database and news?

It sounds kind of innovative? just like bioshock was.

Too boring to stay with the same gameplay ideas always, I applaud the effort.

Oh…kay. I guess. Unexpected, yes. Much depends on the execution, but I can't say this makes me jump up and down in anticipation.

The selling point, IMO, of Bioshock was the atmosphere anyway. As long as that atmosphere is maintained (or improved), I'm not overly worried if the gameplay is a heaping helping of "more of the same". It's not like the gameplay in Bioshock 1 was horrible.

Hmm, nothing exciting about the sequel. Guess i should turn on wait and see attitude.

Originally Posted by Kostaz
Sorry for the Offtopic but shouldn't Bioshock 2 be included in Watch's database and news?

I for one hope it won't be included in our database. Bioshock was in it because, well, it was regarded as a spiritual successor to the System Shock games, even though the developers said it wasn't, so it was fine. But now that we know Bioshock for what it was … I don't think there's much incentive.

I guess I don't really understand the hesitancy to put the occasional non-RPG game into the database. Are we worried an FPS is going to corrupt our RPG data? I don't see where having a few non-RPG games of interest to our users waters down our brand, nor constitutes some sort of obligation to supply a comprehensive database for FPS in addition to RPGs.

I don't want to reopen that can of worms, but Bioshock was very RPGish. Although I wouldn't call it an RPG, I certainly wouldn't get upset about it being included in RPG discussions.

April edition…

Originally Posted by Arhu
I for one hope it won't be included in our database.

The concept of 'genre' is overrated, anyway.

Hear hear. I'm all for Big Tent RPGWatchicanism!

This was done at the end of the last level in Bioshock, right before you took on the big bad foozle. Exactly the same thing like splicers attacking you, a big daddy being pissed off that you have a little sister and attacking, you having to keep all of the baddies from hurting your little sister. Personally I hated that level, having to keep the splicers off the little sister was a pain in the butt. She kept dying and I had to reload, not because the game made me reload. I just didn't want one dying on me.

I'll be like everyone else here and hope that it is something a little better than it sounds because if not they just took the worst part of the game and made a whole new game around it.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
This was done at the end of the last level in Bioshock, right before you took on the big bad foozle. Exactly the same thing like splicers attacking you, a big daddy being pissed off that you have a little sister and attacking, you having to keep all of the baddies from hurting your little sister. Personally I hated that level, having to keep the splicers off the little sister was a pain in the butt. She kept dying and I had to reload, not because the game made me reload. I just didn't want one dying on me.

I'll be like everyone else here and hope that it is something a little better than it sounds because if not they just took the worst part of the game and made a whole new game around it.

Totally agree with this.
It sounds like a "Next gen" arcade game of endless griding.

The FPS and MMO grind it out non-stop mentality has to be broken! All the devs think anything anyone ever wants in any games that have guns is endless frontal assaults and run and guns. Their is a saying called "variety is the spice of…games?"
Come on combat is more fun when it is important, well thought out encounters, and you hungry for it. Not when you are a overbloated shoot em up addict like a crack whore. The lack of combat, the contrast with other forms of gameplay is what should make the combat more exciting and intense.
Give us stealth, alternate routes (tunnels, passages, sewars, air ducts etc.), hacking (overriding drones, turrets, remote surveillance, remote turret droid control), and maybe some resolution with dialogue (too much to as k for in Bioshock but..) Just more good gameplay from System Shock, Deus Ex, and even KOTOR.
Of course this is too much to ask for, but people are making more interesting mods for Deus Ex and System Shock then this.

The question comes down to is it really worth grinding the whole game just to get some of the atmosphere and get the whole plot?

Originally Posted by buckaroobonzai
The question comes down to is it really worth grinding the whole game just to get some of the atmosphere and get the whole plot?

Good question. I'd ask, though, how different that is from an RPG. Level, level, level, advance the story, level, level, level…

Well thats the ultimate reason RPGs can offer more then almost any non-hybrid genre of gaming. They can offer more of a 360 degree gaming experience.
Why is this important?

Well we our lives are not linear fight, travel, rest, fight, travel experiences, if they are whoah time to change big time!
And, when we are playing games that last over 6-7 hours or so, any imitation/emulation of the variety of experiences we go through, in gaming terms should be exciting and fun though, is more conguruent with our mind's thinking and processing mechanics and functions.

To put it simpler, Any RPG or Hybrid multi genre game is easier to digest for lengthy sessions, even if broken up, as well as are a perfect fit as far as experiencing reality, and thus games which are subsets, extrapolations, and minimizations of aspects of our reality.

For a person who has not trained themselves mentally to do the same task or limited experience for hundreds of hours, they will enjoy and be more at ease with a game that has a multitude forms of experience like a CRPG(exploring, combat, sneaking, burglarizing, hacking, talking, reading lore etc.) as compared to say for instance playing space invaders for 100 hours.

The limited experience or lack of variety to attract attention makes playing Space Invaders for 100 hours a much more difficult task requiring much more forced steenuous concentration as opposed to playing games like Gothic, Deus Ex etc becuase they have more environmental changes, variety, and depth.

It usually takes someone who has basically trained themselves (i.e. forced) mentally to plod/grind through endless combat for accumulating incremental rewards. These would be the simplest games from Space Invaders, all the way up through Gauntlet, and even Diablo and its clones to a degree, though they have more variety at this level up the ladder.

So those of us who have over the years trained our minds for the arcadish or grind based fun can more easily accept dozens upon dozens of hours of that to play just to get through to find out the whole plot.
But a game that offers some much more on the way offers much more of a mental 7 course meal of satisfaction I would tend to offer, as opposed to the non stop burger fest of hacks like WOW and similar.

Thats why it is easier to tolerate, and more fun to play a well rounded world RPG to get the story then just a hack fest.

The bottom line is that Bioshock, while not an RPG, was a great game.

But does anyone really find the idea of becoming a Big Daddy for an entire game appealing? I know I don't…

Hard to imagine how they could turn that premise around to something I could possibly enjoy, in truth. Maybe an early April joke? Please make it be so! Please!