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Sunday Comics: Dead Island Perhaps you heard today that Ken Levine and Irrational’s much-hyped, ambitious Bioshock Infinite has ben delayed until 2013.
This Saturday, at PAX East, I had the pleasure of attending the “Plot vs Play” panel, moderated by Joystiq’s Ben Gilbert and Kotaku‘s own Jason Schreier. The panel brought together three developers who have all worked on landmark, story-driven games to discuss their differing philosophies on the presence and purpose of story in gaming.
Watching the BioShock Infinite demonstration at E3, I formed the mistaken impression that the thrill-ride skylines of Columbia had, within the game’s story, always been intended as a primary mode of personal transportation. They aren’t, as Irrational Games’ Ken Levine explains in this four-minute video featuring lots of gameplay.
I love promotional music videos for games, since they’re usually so wonderfully terrible they’re fantastic. It’s even better when there’s a weird story attached: GameSetWatch turned up a NeoGAF post regarding the fate of Irrational’s cancelled release, The Lost. The game has resurfaced (with reworked graphics, but with core mechanics and story relatively intact) as an Indian release for PCs under the title of Agni: Queen Of Darkness. As GSW neatly sums up, “… evidently this title went south, Irrational got bought by 2K and turned their attention to BioShock, and FXLabs managed to rejigger it for a Bollywood PC release.” But that’s not all! It even got its own music video featuring Bollywood star Malaika Arora. I’m entranced.
Irrational’s ‘The Lost’ Turns Up… In Bollywood?! [GameSetWatch]
It’s just a shame that 2KAustralia.com looks almost identical to 2KBoston.com – but that’s to be expected.
At least they’re separate.
Both sites are light on features, however, the Oz version has gone to the trouble of adding a nice section with bios for some of the guys from the Canberra studio. For example, Jon Chey wrote just five lines of code for Terra Nova. He also has a secret love of “18th century English Rococo chairs”. Certainly news to me.
2K Australia [Official site, via Sumea]
BioShock’s setting is unique. A decaying, art deco underwater dystopia is not something we run through and/or blow up every day. And the game’s all the better for it! Wasn’t always so original, though. It used to be set on a tropical island. With Nazis. Senior Designer Joe McDonagh: Every studio has its own dynamic, but we believe that original games require a lot of iteration and sudden changes of direction. It can be terrifying and ageing at times. But it’s impossible to sit down at the start of a project and say this game will be XYZ and it will be fun. Bioshock for instance started out on a tropical island with Nazis.
The island, that’s OK, Far Cry’s lazy sunsets were the star of that little show, but Nazis? Unless they’re flying zeppelins, thanks, we’ve had our fill. Smart move, Irrational. Bioshock began “on a tropical island with Nazis” [CVG]
Proof that you can’t please everyone: the BioShock demo already has many PC users crying foul (amongst other less family-friendly words). “What about us!” they wail, indignant that some scruffy little console will be playing at least some part of the game before they are. Well, Irrational are saying that a PC demo is coming. Not here yet, but it’s coming. For those of you who are looking for a BioShock demo on the PC, it is in the works and will be out later this month. I’ll give you more details about it tomorrow.
See, they haven’t forgotten about you. Just kicked you down their list of top priorities, is all. Wait til tomorrow before reaching for that pitchfork/torch. BIOSHOCK DEMO LIVE NOW ON XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE [Cult of Rapture]
