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[Fine Ham Abounds]

Two

Spoiler

Shantytowns

in one month? What a coincidence.

Don't scare me with this kind of talk.

I have a HD Radeon 5870 I just pulled out of my system works like a charm still... I won't be able to send it until next Thursday, but if you want it I can do that?

If this doesn't work out, we should start a fund to keep Derrick playing. All the people who complain about him should donate a quarter, you know, sorta like a swear jar.

I'm not even joking

 

[RoboPlato]

Had to drag myself away since I have to go to bed since I have an early day at work tomorrow. Played about 4-5 hours left off at

Spoiler

The Hall of Heroes

. About how far am I?

Game is fucking fantastic so far. The guns feel great and the trap option for Vigors adds a lot of strategy to them. Elizabeth has been great so far. Seeing her explore and look around the environment is very believable, and mirror's exactly how I feel exploring Columbia. Can't wait to dig in more tomorrow.

 

[Guess Who]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. It peaks way too early.

Have you gotten to the ending?

Because I'd advise not saying that until you beat the game. It drags in the middle but the last act, holy shit.

 

[Prodigal]

So I bought the season pass after I started a new game...how do I get access to the 5 bonus infusion bottles?

Anybody?

 

[Vire]

This middle section is reallllly fetch questy. Its a very good game, but I don't know about all those 9s and 10s yet. Better than the first one though, that's for sure

I thought the same thing, keep going.

 

[Zeliard]

So I bought the season pass after I started a new game...how do I get access to the 5 bonus infusion bottles?

They give you 5 infusion bottles right off the bat? lol

 

[Derrick01]

I have a HD Radeon 5870 I just pulled out of my system works like a charm still... I won't be able to send it until next Thursday, but if you want it I can do that?

I don't want to do anything yet, it could just be these new beta drivers I'm using. The last couple beta ones I had caused me to have some random driver crashes which rarely happened to me in the past. Could be the thing dying or just those. I just went through a 20 minute stretch in the game with no problems and I still get 60fps with my high settings.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Agreed. The first 3 hours are god tier but right now it's pretty by the numbers stuff. Hope it picks back up soon. The

Spoiler

waiting for the gondola

fight was amazing.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. It peaks way too early.

There are some great firefights in here, way better than anything BS1 delivered. And it's always a sight to see and wonderful to hear. But the story has really stalled out in this middle section. Go get these weapons to get this thing you need, but weapons aren't there so go to this place, then backtrack back to weapons, but before you get weapons you gotta get tools for blah blah blah. It's fallen into a formula of fetch questing through linear areas, shoot people, and mashing Xs on glowy stuff for scavenge, rinse and repeat.

I hear it picks up against in the last 3 hours, though. We'll see tomorrow.

 

[Amir0x]

I don't want to do anything yet, it could just be these new beta drivers I'm using. The last couple beta ones I had caused me to have some random driver crashes which rarely happened to me in the past. Could be the thing dying or just those. I just went through a 20 minute stretch in the game with no problems and I still get 60fps with my high settings.

The game has stuttering issues, you've probably heard about them. I fixed them mostly, but from time to time even on this HD Radeon 7870 the game will stutter hardcore. It's a very irritating problem

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

I got my copy! Will play it in a bit. Pretty excited.

Is it just me or is 'Booker DeWitt' the most American name ever?

 

[taoofjord]

Sorry, I know a lot of people are asking, but I'm curious... roughly how far am I percentage-wise?

Spoiler

I just went through the tear with Elizabeth in the police station to the world where the guns are still with that gunsmith.

 

[DukeBobby]

Two

Spoiler

Shantytowns

in one month? What a coincidence.

At least the frame rate is consistent in this one.

 

[Derrick01]

The game has stuttering issues, you've probably heard about them. I fixed them mostly, but from time to time even on this HD Radeon 7870 the game will stutter hardcore. It's a very irritating problem

Yeah I think that's the game engine doing it, most unreal games do it I think because of the streaming/loading it does. I notice it briefly when I transition to new areas.

 

[DukeBobby]

Sorry, I know a lot of people are asking, but I'm curious... roughly how far am I percentage-wise?

Spoiler

I just went through the tear with Elizabeth in the police station to the world where the guns are still with that gunsmith.

I'm at the same point as you. I think we're about 55-60% the way through it.

 

[WickedLaharl]

There isn't one.

Wow I feel like someone just kicked me in the nuts. Too many games I've played recently haven't had NG+ and it makes me sad.

Anyways I'm at

Spoiler

the hall of heroes

. How far am I? I've been taking my time and spent 4 hrs getting this far.

 

[Amir0x]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

 

[Ithil]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

I think AC III just pussied out in general.

 

[Jharp]

So I just got past the initial shit storm where

Spoiler

you choose between throwing the ball at the interracial couple or the announcer

and past my first "load a new area" prompt.

How do saves work? I kept wanting to exit to eat dinner, but it kept saying "last autosave was 12 minutes ago," and I didn't want to redo whatever progress or minigame at the carnival I'd done, so I'd keep playing. I'm playing 1999 Mode if it matters (does it matter?).

Also, not sure if it was pointed out in the thread yet, but did anyone else see this and think it was a reference to Fallout's Pip Boy? Perhaps I'm just seeing things that aren't really there.

 

[sikkinixx]

Boy I love checkpoint saving, especially when I get "error, cannot save profile"

JUST LET ME F5 TO SAVE

 

[RoboPlato]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

One really early thing that caught me off guard was

Spoiler

the cages with monkeys with giant lips drawn on them that they bring the black people in with and bananas scattered around them.

All the rest of the stuff was what I was expecting but that made me pause for a minute.

 

[Brinbe]

Have you gotten to the ending?

Because I'd advise not saying that until you beat the game. It drags in the middle but the last act, holy shit.

Yes, I have, in fact. I've digested it all now and that opinion still holds up. Ending sequence was satisfying (though as discussed, that last battle was really fucking awful), but I think it's being overrated, personally. Especially as a

Spoiler

Fringe

fan. Saw the "twist" coming once you

Spoiler

ventured into the tear into the other universe

and that kind of soured things a bit.

 

[Jharp]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

Say what you will about the primary length of the game and how it fails to deal with racism in the early period of American history, but I really loved at the end when Connor narrates the prophetic bit about how defeating the British was only one small achievement for the colonists in the long run or some such, as the camera panned to a slave being sold on an auction block.

 

[Ithil]

One really early thing that caught me off guard was

Spoiler

the cages with monkeys with giant lips drawn on them that they bring the black people in with and bananas scattered around them.

All the rest of the stuff was what I was expecting but that made me pause for a minute.

The rather spot on

Spoiler

Hall of Heroes displays with the old Yellow Peril caricatures are something I don't recall having seen touched upon in a game.

 

[Red Blaster]

This middle section is reallllly fetch questy.

well it is a ken levine game after all

 

[googleplex]

Ok, I've never player any of the previous Bioshocks, but fortunately the PS3 verion I bought came with Bioshock 1.

Now, should I start with the first one? Or can I just jump right into infinite? I kinda want to play infinite because its easier for me to play FPS's with the Move pointer controls.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

I didn't play ACIII (don't care for the series) but didn't it take place during the revolutionary war? In all fairness, there was an awful lot of pussying out over the issue of slavery at that time.

 

[Ithil]

Say what you will about the primary length of the game and how it fails to deal with racism in the early period of American history, but I really loved at the end when Connor narrates the prophetic bit about how defeating the British was only one small achievement for the colonists in the long run or some such, as the camera panned to a slave being sold on an auction block.

I will admit I've only played a few hours into AC III (haven't even gotten to Connor yet), but I was turned off by the whole blind "heroic noble liberating American heroes = good, and evil British oppressors = evil Templars" aesthetic, did I check out too early or is it like that the whole way through?

 

[spirity]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

When I saw

Spoiler

the couple being wheeled out, and the guys comment about coffee, I wtf'ed. Then the separate blacks and whites restrooms, the irish being portrayed as potato eating drunks, and all the various 'foreigner' jibes

... Irrational has got balls and I love them for it. And didn't I hear someone over the tannoy say they were looking for either a

Spoiler

dwarf or a one eyed frenchman thats no more than 4ft 9? I have to admit that one made me lol.

 

[Magnus]

So fuck, I've finished the game, right.

Under Load Chapter, I now see all my 'autosaves' only going back to about 10 or 12 autosaves into the game. There are apparently a limited number of autosaves.

So...basically, if I want to play again, I'm erasing my old autosaves as far as I can tell. And those are the only saves...right?

I hate this game's save system.

 

[Ithil]

Ok, I've never player any of the previous Bioshocks, but fortunately the PS3 verion I bought came with Bioshock 1.

Now, should I start with the first one? Or can I just jump right into infinite? I kinda want to play infinite because its easier for me to play FPS's with the Move pointer controls.

They are completely unrelated with different worlds. They are just linked in similar gameplay and some thematic strands.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Man this is some BioShock ass BioShock

Just met Elizabeth. That took way too long.

 

[Amir0x]

I didn't play ACIII (don't care for the series) but didn't it take place during the revolutionary war? In all fairness, there was an awful lot of pussying out over the issue of slavery at that time.

No, you don't get what I mean. I mean, it avoided depicting actual slavery as much as possible. They showed people of color doing 'chores' and stuff, sweeping and whatnot, but the only black man we really get a feel for in the game owns a giant mansion and a huge bunch of land, and every thing else is just colored with conversation. Like, Connor will be like "oh man you talk about freedom and yet you own slaves!" But that's about as much as they showed on the issue except one or two extremely brief little snippets. We're talking about a period of American history defined by slavery, a country built on the back of slaves, and yet we're walking around Revolutionary War America with only the barest hint of the racism that existed? Come on.

I will admit I've only played a few hours into AC III (haven't even gotten to Connor yet), but I was turned off by the whole blind "heroic noble liberating American heroes = good, and evil British oppressors = evil Templars" aesthetic, did I check out too early or is it like that the whole way through?

Haha, I won't defend ACIII often, but yeah this is wrong. It's totally different.

 

[WickedLaharl]

So fuck, I've finished the game, right.

Under Load Chapter, I now see all my 'autosaves' only going back to about 10 or 12 autosaves into the game. There are apparently a limited number of autosaves.

So...basically, if I want to play again, I'm erasing my old autosaves as far as I can tell. And those are the only saves...right?

I hate this game's save system.

Damn guess i'll be making periodic back ups.

 

[Red Blaster]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

how could you miss tales games and their babies first racist plotlines

 

[GavinGT]

Man this is some BioShock ass BioShock

That's exactly what I was saying for the first couple hours. They really felt the need to have all those same trappings as the first game.

Going up/down an elevator while reading propaganda text banners? Check.

 

[Casanova]

So I just got past the initial shit storm where

Spoiler

you choose between throwing the ball at the interracial couple or the announcer

and past my first "load a new area" prompt.

How do saves work? I kept wanting to exit to eat dinner, but it kept saying "last autosave was 12 minutes ago," and I didn't want to redo whatever progress or minigame at the carnival I'd done, so I'd keep playing. I'm playing 1999 Mode if it matters (does it matter?).

Also, not sure if it was pointed out in the thread yet, but did anyone else see this and think it was a reference to Fallout's Pip Boy? Perhaps I'm just seeing things that aren't really there.

Yeah, I noticed it yesterday when I was watching my friend play at his house. We're both Fallout fans so it was interesting, to say the least.

 

[Amir0x]

how could you miss tales games and their babies first racist plotlines

memory erasing

 

[jacksepticeye]

Yes, I have, in fact. I've digested it all now and that opinion still holds up. Ending sequence was satisfying (though as discussed, that last battle was really fucking awful), but I think it's being overrated, personally. Especially as a

Spoiler

Fringe

fan. Saw the "twist" coming once you

Spoiler

ventured into the tear into the other universe

and that kind of soured things a bit.

As a huge LOST fan I had an inkling what would happen when I realised

Spoiler

the people on the boat at the start were the Lucetes

but still some stuff caught me off guard

 

[Uthred]

Just finished it, it really picks up in the last third of the game. I thought the ending was predictably telegraphed, but worked in the context of the game. As someone mentioned above its probably something you dont want to look to hard it. Overall the last part of the game really redeemed it for me, I still think it was trodding old ground but it did it very well. Solid 8/10 if I had to give it a number. Not sure how much replay value there is, got more or less all the collectibles and the combat wasnt engaging enough to make me play through it again. Took about 11 hours to complete, for once I actually would have preffered if it were a little shorter.

Pros

->Some truly amazing looking vistas and setpieces (cant overemphasise this enough, some of the vistas were just amazing, think I may have strained my screenshot key)
->Elizabeth is a very well realised NPC and never once causes any of the problems one assoicates with AI partners or fetch quests
->Cohesive story which built to a satsifying (if somewhat predictable) conclusion.
->Enjoyable but linear level design (while the rails offer extra "volume" on the level they dont alleviate the linearity)
->Optimised fairly well, had everything running at ultra and no problems with framerates
->Plays great with a controller (I actually switched fully to controller early on)
->The visual effects for weapon and plasmid damage were awesome looking

Cons

->Inexplicable low res textures and low poly models
-> The ending was a satisfying experience but doesnt bear thinking about too much for fear of it coming apart at the seams
->A lot of the major NPC's are cyphers who never get explained and explored (I felt Bioshock did this better, it really got across the personalities of the various important Rapture NPC's). Admittedly this may have been a deliberate choice to frame Elizabeth front and center. If it was its one I disagree with
->Game is plagued by pacing issues in the middle part where it relies far too much on fetch quests
->Too little enemy variety, the majority of which are boring ordinary people
->Unsatisfying "boss battles"
-> Annoying technical issues like Vsync capping FPS at 30, mouse acceleration issues, etc.
-> The whole "Racism is BAD" (no shit) felt a bit insipid. The bad guys were entirely one dimensional, which made it a bit boring in places.
-> Felt Vigors were much more boring than Plasmids in Bioshock, along those lines I also missed the weapon upgrade system from Bioshock and there seemed to be a lot less ways to use the environment

 

[antitrop]

The game has stuttering issues, you've probably heard about them. I fixed them mostly, but from time to time even on this HD Radeon 7870 the game will stutter hardcore. It's a very irritating problem

If it's not fixed in the first patch people should be furious.

 

[Ithil]

That's exactly what I was saying for the first couple hours. They really felt the need to have all those same trappings as the first game.

Going up/down an elevator while reading propaganda text banners? Check.

That's some pretty basic trappings you've got there. I can't say beyond some one sentence summaries that Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite's openings were similar.

 

[Toparaman]

Ok, I've never player any of the previous Bioshocks, but fortunately the PS3 verion I bought came with Bioshock 1.

To the best of my knowledge, the two games are only related in the same way two Final Fantasy games are related; similar gameplay, different world and narrative.

By the way, can you do me a favor? At the opening logos for Bioshock 1 (2K Games, Unreal Engine, etc.), is the Digital Extremes logo included?

Just wondering if it's the same port that was released back in 2008.

 

[RadarScope1]

I couldn't get that PC Gamer vid to play properly but I totally get what he's saying about digging into the tactical aspects of the combat. My problem is that I really don't play shooters that much and I think Hard will be too much for me. Lately I've had no shame about about playing games on easy - I just wanna experience them and finish them.

Guess I can I always drop the setting if it gets too hairy?

 

[Ithil]

I couldn't get that PC Gamer vid to play properly but I totally get what he's saying about digging into the tactical aspects of the combat. My problem is that I really don't play shooters that much and I think Hard will be too much for me. Lately I've had no shame about about playing games on easy - I just wanna experience them and finish them.

Guess I can I always drop the setting if it gets too hairy?

Go Medium.

 

[melichrous]

So, I just finished this. I played it through on hard, so it took me a little while longer than it probably should have done. I died. Pretty frequently.
I thought Columbia was pretty damn beautiful, and liked how everything was built.
Story was enjoyable. I thought the pacing was fine, though I can see why others thought it slowed down somewhat in the middle.
The combat blew me away, to be honest. I went into it expecting gunplay similar to the original, but this was so much better. The selection of weapons was good, and the Vigors were different enough from each other to keep things interesting.
I think they got the AI for Elizabeth pretty much spot on, as she was never really getting in my way, and was throwing me stuff when I needed it. She only got stuck once, and blocked me in once, but both of them were right after an autosave, so it didn't really bother me.
Now all that's left for me to do is replay it on 1999 mode, but I think I'm gonna have a couple days gap before I start so I don't burn myself out.

I need sleep, I've been keeping myself awake too long to play this, but that's a good thing I guess. It certainly kept me hooked.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

No, you don't get what I mean. I mean, it avoided depicting actual slavery as much as possible. They showed people of color doing 'chores' and stuff, sweeping and whatnot, but the only black man we really get a feel for in the game owns a giant mansion and a huge bunch of land, and every thing else is just colored with conversation. Like, Connor will be like "oh man you talk about freedom and yet you own slaves!" But that's about as much as they showed on the issue except one or two extremely brief little snippets. We're talking about a period of American history defined by slavery, a country built on the back of slaves, and yet we're walking around Revolutionary War America with only the barest hint of the racism that existed? Come on.

Ah, so it really was The Patriot : The Game after all?

 

[pakkit]

Man this is some BioShock ass BioShock

Just met Elizabeth. That took way too long.

Lets agree to disagree. After Tomb Raider skipped an introductory sequence and expected you to give a damn about the world and its secondary characters, I was refreshed to see developers emphasize their strengths in world building and really allow you to sink into the setting.

 

[GavinGT]

That's some pretty basic trappings you've got there. I can't say beyond some one sentence summaries that Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite's openings were similar.

There are enough that it's worth mentioning, though.

Spoiler

cold open showing a guy in transit somewhere
guys opens box with mission information inside while in transit
enters a mysterious lighthouse
the aforementioned going up/down an elevator while reading propaganda text banners

My first impression was that it was retreading the same ground because they didn't know how else to frame it. But then I finished the game and everything made sense.

 

[Derrick01]

Lets agree to disagree. After Tomb Raider skipped an introductory sequence and expected you to give a damn about the world and its secondary characters, I was refreshed to see developers emphasize their strengths in world building and really allow you to sink into the setting.

Agreed. I wish more games that choose to focus on story and setting would take the time to properly introduce them to the player. I really appreciated not even having a gun to fire in this game for pretty much the first hour while I dicked around a few parts of the city.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

also, is this the most direct look at racism in a game to date? I can't think of any games other than educational ones that were more overt. It's weird because some of the scenes are pretty shocking from that perspective, and yet Assassin's Creed III focused on the actual slavery period and pussied out on almost every occasion to show anything even remotely offensive. Just some conversations about slavery and shit.

Yes, most games that focus on racism do so through allegory, or avoid certain inflammatory things. I was totally surprised when (early spoilers)

Spoiler

the lottery happened and that old-school nasty caricature of a black person came up

. Likewise with the Hall of Heroes. Yeesh. Hats off to Irrational for not pulling any punches.