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Bioshock Infinite |OT| No Gods, Kings, or Irrational Games

Kajiba

Member
I can't believe I missed 11 Voxophones. Shit. I felt like I combed every inch of the game. Gonna have to find the ones I missed on YouTube or something.

At the end I missed 3 voxophones and 1 telescope or kinetoscope on my first playthrough. I was so close lol.
 

cackhyena

Member
you dont have to kill everything in bioshock. you definitely dont have to in system shock 2.
sure the AI had patrol paths in those games but they would break out of them to investigate a noise and you could even hide while they looked. infinite doesnt have this at all. if you make a noise like breaking a window or possessing a vending machine it's always guaranteed combat even if the nearest enemy is hundreds of feet away. in the older shock games you could take out a stray enemy without alerting the rest. not possible in this one. this time its a few enemies standing there waiting for you to hit the trigger point which allows the rest to spawn in and everyone attacks. they all know exactly where you are as soon as the game switches into a fight too. people say it's very different because it is.
Except there's no game play reward for avoiding the fight. The conceit is the opposition is on the alert at all times here, since the powers that be know of your presence and control troops. You seem to want a carbon copy of what came before, regardless of scenario change. Just because Bioshock is in the name, doesn't mean it needs the same setup, resulting in similar combat scenarios. And when you start firing guns, why wouldn't you assume all enemies would be converging on you?

Bioshock became insultingly samey after a while with how you could exploit it. At least here, there's a enough variety with the skyhook and wanting to experiment with combining vigors in these open areas. Do I wish other elements were in play as well? Sure. I always prefer stealthing my way through games. If it's half assed because the combat takes priority, leave it out, though. It doesn't reward me, so take a different tact to change it up.
 

Bedlam

Member
Crap. I believe I stumbled across a short but huge spoiler earlier. It just said
"...or didn't exist at all"
.

Did I just ruin my BI experience by reading that?
 
The combat in this is much more dynamic and fun that Bio 1's for me. It's faster-paced and much more dynamic. The sky-lines, the tears, I'm having a blast. Perhaps it's because I started on 1999 Mode, but I'm constantly mixing thing up and coming up with different strategies to tackle each encounter.
 
I really did not like this game. After playing 999, the story wasn't as interesting as that story was and I didn't have to do a bunch of monotonous shooting in between. The shooting and combat was boring, aiming on the PS3 was nigh-impossible and frustrating. I found a bug with skyhooking that turned off my ability to move/look around and had to restart a couple times. The graphics looked like Bioshock 1. I have no clue what they spent 6 years of development time on. Looking at the tech involved with the game, there was really nothing here that could not have been done with the first Bioshock game, and therefore necessitated such a long development cycle.

A completely wasted opportunity. The only fun I had in the game was in the first half, exploring places and finding every little neat thing. They needed more things other than health, salts, and ammo to find and uncover. In the beginning you are drowning in health boosts where no combat is to be found. Such bizarre choices and game design.
 
Crap. I believe I stumbled across a short but huge spoiler earlier. It just said
"...or didn't exist at all"
.

Did I just ruin my BI experience by reading that?

I will tell everyone that asks this.. ignore what you read and just play the game.

FWIW that "spoiler" you posted doesn't even make sense to me and I have beat the game
 
Okay, finished it, and restarted on 1999 Mode. Now that I know how the systems work, I think 1999 is easier than hard so far. Turning on combat information has helped too.

What a fucking game, that ending, man, my mind is spinning. Great job of going through incredibly complex topics succinctly Ken + co.

While I miss the open+emergent combat of Bio 1, and the deeper skill trees of System shock 2, infinate probably does choice and character development better than either. It's better balanced than SS2, and forces you to make more interesting gameplay choices than Bioshock 1. It goes without saying that the visceral elements of combat are better than either.

Combine that with the combat and exploration and world and you have a stellar game.
 

FartOfWar

Banned
Looking at the tech involved with the game, there was really nothing here that could not have been done with the first Bioshock game, and therefore necessitated such a long development cycle.
.
Yo, monetize those technical triage skills. I mean, if you're not already an engine coder, and I highly doubt that you aren't already.
 
I just have to say I don't get peoples hate of this game. I understand its opinion and that's fine but when I see people complain about the mechanics or Elizabeths A.I. it makes me scratch my head.

what games are they comparing this too? what other shooters are out there doing all this stuff so much better then Infinite?

edit: personally I can except Half Life 2 but that pretty much sits on the throne for narrative based FPS right now.
 

Andrew.

Banned
Yo, monetize those technical triage skills. I mean, if you're not already an engine coder, and I highly doubt that you aren't already.

Yo Shawn, your protip on beating
Lady Comstock
was on fucking point man. Thank you!

Now about that finale... I need that other protip...
 
agree, play Bioshock 1 first at least. Amazing game.
I started a (second? third? don't remember) Bioshock 1 playthrough yesterday after finishing Infinite and god is the hacking tedious in that game. I don't suppose someone has modded the first game adding Bioshock 2's hacking right? That would be glorious.

Im probably playing Infinite again then, maybe experimenting a bit more with vigors and stuff.. I barely even used Murder of Crows the first time around, I just thought "how good can a bunch of crows really be, I'll just go with fire and lightning instead".
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
I swear one of the vending machines I passed by sounded like Shawn doing one of his voices, ha.
 
Yo, monetize those technical triage skills. I mean, if you're not already an engine coder, and I highly doubt that you aren't already.

All the enemies essentially move the same. The presentation is essentially the same. The graphics are essentially the same. The only major additions I see are skyhooking and this AI following you. I hated the skyhooking, I dreaded it every time I saw it. I thought at the very least with tears that you could look in them and panorama view inside them to get a glimpse at another world, but they are all essentially empty filters. That would have had at the very least taken some dev time to implement. The gameplay tears are also something new, but aren't difficult to implement.

From a technical perspective it seems all the dev time went into the story, which seems like a hell of a waste. Since, I have seen much shorter dev times for games with better stories.
 

Andrew.

Banned
I read this list with a huge grin on my face. It is intuitively devastating, hope I get vampire's embrace when I continue my 1999 run this weekend.


Just remember, after you rush in and make your big first move, immediately switch to a shotty or some other weapon thats got some decent damage upgrades equipped and go at it point blank a couple times before backing up and charging in again.

Ive toasted the first two battles in nothing flat. It was almost too easy and this is on 1999. Ill be doing the third tonight and Im actually not that worried at all about it.
 

cackhyena

Member
All the enemies essentially move the same. The presentation is essentially the same. The graphics are essentially the same. The only major additions I see are skyhooking and this AI following you. I hated the skyhooking, I dreaded it every time I saw it. I thought at the very least with tears that you could look in them and panorama view inside them to get a glimpse at another world, but they are all essentially empty filters. That would have had at the very least taken some dev time to implement. The gameplay tears are also something new, but aren't difficult to implement.

From a technical perspective it seems all the dev time went into the story, which seems like a hell of a waste. Since, I have seen much shorter dev times for games with better stories.

This is hilarious.
 

FartOfWar

Banned
All the enemies essentially move the same. The presentation is essentially the same. The graphics are essentially the same. The only major additions I see are skyhooking and this AI following you. I hated the skyhooking, I dreaded it every time I saw it. I thought at the very least with tears that you could look in them and panorama view inside them to get a glimpse at another world, but they are all essentially empty filters. That would have had at the very least taken some dev time to implement. The gameplay tears are also something new, but aren't difficult to implement.

From a technical perspective it seems all the dev time went into the story, which seems like a hell of a waste. Since, I have seen much shorter dev times for games with better stories.

Sure, I totally follow you. I came for the prozone tech talk and love being enlightened!
 
I wasn't really feeling combat until the first part where it all comes together
getting to the airship
. The combination of tears, skyrails, vigors, and guns makes it a frantic shoot fest...Skyrails really are a nice design solution to adding verticality into shooters. I hope I'm still not very far (5 hours played)..just
met Daisy Fitzroy
. I'm a little disappointed with Elizabeth in that she doesn't seem to do anything so far. I'll even stand around waiting for her to interact with objects but most of the time she just stands there in my field of view idle. Hopefully that picks up more as I play on.

Also, I'm not sure how you guys are getting so many lock picks. I've had to skip opening 2 chests (out of 4 that I've encountered so far). Maybe this becomes less of a deal later on.

Mechanics wise, I'm going to remap Q and E (next weapon/next vigor is a totally redundant command on PC- not that I think it's a design flaw) as I keep hitting these buttons either by accident or I'll switch vigors when I want to switch weapons and vice versa. Again not so much of a complaint against the devs but more of a I should've thought to remap this earlier kinda deal (maybe E for Vigor, Q for melee).
 

Riposte

Member
All the enemies essentially move the same. The presentation is essentially the same. The graphics are essentially the same. The only major additions I see are skyhooking and this AI following you. I hated the skyhooking, I dreaded it every time I saw it. I thought at the very least with tears that you could look in them and panorama view inside them to get a glimpse at another world, but they are all essentially empty filters. That would have had at the very least taken some dev time to implement. The gameplay tears are also something new, but aren't difficult to implement.

From a technical perspective it seems all the dev time went into the story, which seems like a hell of a waste. Since, I have seen much shorter dev times for games with better stories.

ACTUAL TRANSCRIPT of what happened at Ken Levine's house (where BioShock was made):

"Guys, we got all this BioShock to turn into some BioShock Infinite... so how are we going to do this?"

"Well, since the BioShock is already done, let's use all our dev time on story"

"Won't they notice?"

"No, it'll be okay. Add some empty filters and skyhooks."
 

Talon

Member
All the enemies essentially move the same. The presentation is essentially the same. The graphics are essentially the same. The only major additions I see are skyhooking and this AI following you. I hated the skyhooking, I dreaded it every time I saw it. I thought at the very least with tears that you could look in them and panorama view inside them to get a glimpse at another world, but they are all essentially empty filters. That would have had at the very least taken some dev time to implement. The gameplay tears are also something new, but aren't difficult to implement.

From a technical perspective it seems all the dev time went into the story, which seems like a hell of a waste. Since, I have seen much shorter dev times for games with better stories.
In this alternate reality, the Sega Saturn was a success.
 
All the enemies essentially move the same. The presentation is essentially the same. The graphics are essentially the same. The only major additions I see are skyhooking and this AI following you. I hated the skyhooking, I dreaded it every time I saw it. I thought at the very least with tears that you could look in them and panorama view inside them to get a glimpse at another world, but they are all essentially empty filters. That would have had at the very least taken some dev time to implement. The gameplay tears are also something new, but aren't difficult to implement.

From a technical perspective it seems all the dev time went into the story, which seems like a hell of a waste. Since, I have seen much shorter dev times for games with better stories.

Even as someone who has made similarly flavored shit posts, this is amusing to me.
 
Don't discourage him, dude! Getting too many laughs here over him.

I don't understand what is so funny. At least with some games with long dev times when I played the game I was wowed by something I had never seen before. I remember playing Prey for the first time and being really impressed with it. That was some really difficult tech that I am sure they spent a lot of time on implementing. That was actually a fun and interesting shooter. Portal of course was an evolution of that, but after seeing Prey, the awe was lessened.

With Bioshock Infinite, I cannot think of anything I was particular impressed with. Nothing stood out to me as, "Wow this is awesome and unique, and I have never experienced this from another game before." Most of what I am seeing is just hype.
 
this game started out really strong, but now I am 9 hours in and it has been too combat heavy. Just arena after arena of enemies. I like the word, the story and the characters, but it has way too much combat.
 

cackhyena

Member
I don't understand what is so funny. At least with some games with long dev times when I played the game I was wowed by something I had never seen before. I remember playing Prey for the first time and being really impressed with it. That was some really difficult tech that I am sure they spent a lot of time on implementing. That was actually a fun and interesting shooter. Portal of course was an evolution of that, but after seeing Prey, the awe was lessened.

With Bioshock Infinite, I cannot think of anything I was particular impressed with. Nothing stood out to me as, "Wow this is awesome and unique, and I have never experienced this from another game before." Most of what I am seeing is just hype.
If you're to be taken halfway seriously, I guess I'd ask how the art direction didn't floor you. But I'm guessing you have a "been there, done that" answer for that one as well.
 
I actually thought Tomb Raider had a better combat. Better exploring. And a better unfolding of the overall narrative and story. It was more emotionally involving. At least with Tomb Raider everything in the engine felt and looked brand new and had to be built from scratch. Most of Infinite looks borrowed from Bioshock 1 in terms of engine.

I just realized why I feel Bioshock Infinite appears so OLD to me. Where are the physics? There are no physics in this game. Everything in the environment is static and unchangeable.
 
I actually thought Tomb Raider had a better combat. Better exploring. And a better unfolding of the overall narrative and story. It was more emotionally involving. At least with Tomb Raider everything in the engine felt and looked brand new and had to be built from scratch. Most of Infinite looks borrowed from Bioshock 1 in terms of engine.

I just realized why I feel Bioshock Infinite appears so OLD to me. Where are the physics? There are no physics in this game. Everything in the environment is static and unchangeable.
Tomb Raider does not have better exploring, and it's kind of an insult comparing them. Bioshock Infinite's exploration relies on interesting voxophones, cleverly placed upgrades and details in the world. Tomb Raider's exploration revolves around shiny little objects that contribute nothing to the story.

Please, don't compare that insult of an adventure game to this.
 

Riposte

Member
Tomb Raider does not have better exploring, and it's kind of an insult comparing them. Bioshock Infinite's exploration relies on interesting voxophones, cleverly placed upgrades and details in the world. Tomb Raider's exploration revolves around shiny little objects that contribute nothing to the story.

Please, don't compare that insult of an adventure game to this.

I recall a lot of shiny little objects in BioShock Infinite that didn't "contribute to the story"... which I picked up by the hundreds.

EDIT: From what I played, I recall "voxophones" in Tomb Raider in the form of narrated journal entries.
 
If you're to be taken halfway seriously, I guess I'd ask how the art direction didn't floor you. But I'm guessing you have a "been there, done that" answer for that one as well.

Sure, it has a very identifiable look, aesthetic and environment. No doubt, but so did Fallout 3. And that was released ages ago. That was all neat, but the part you play, the GAME, was old hat. If they really took 6 years to develop the world, that is just too long, especially when similar games have done similar things with less time, while at the same time building new gameplay systems to complement them.

I will say this Ken Levine is a talented writer and world builder, but they need to fire the engine/programming staff at Irrational. They are slow as hell and the end product is not all that impressive. If it took 6 years to develop the world and the look and the story, hire some goddamn system programmers to develop a game with 6 years of innovation in it as well.
 

cackhyena

Member
I actually thought Tomb Raider had a better combat. Better exploring. And a better unfolding of the overall narrative and story. It was more emotionally involving. At least with Tomb Raider everything in the engine felt and looked brand new and had to be built from scratch. Most of Infinite looks borrowed from Bioshock 1 in terms of engine.

I just realized why I feel Bioshock Infinite appears so OLD to me. Where are the physics? There are no physics in this game. Everything in the environment is static and unchangeable.
So you wanted the magic "show me everything in the area" button. Apparently sequels can't be built on the same engine as well. Also art direction not only means nothing, but in your eyes doesn't take a lot of time to establish. You sir, are to be taken seriously at all times.
 
I recall a lot of shiny little objects in BioShock Infinite that didn't "contribute to the story"... which I picked up by the hundreds.

There are 80 voxophones and 37 kinetoscopes/telescopes. There are also 25 infusions and some gear. Compare that to the irrelevant 100+ GPS caches in Tomb Raider, which are supposed to prolong the game's lifespan.

EDIT: From what I played, I recall "voxophones" in Tomb Raider in the form of narrated journal entries.

Sure, but they contributed very little to the story, and even if they did, the story is terrible in the first place, so it's not even worth exploring for them. Infinite's whole backstory relies on the voxophones, and has a much more interesting premise than "HELP WE STRANDED ON ISLAND WITH BAD GUYZ"
 

Andrew.

Banned
I actually thought Tomb Raider had a better combat

supernatural_confused.gif
 
So you wanted the magic "show me everything in the area" button. Apparently sequels can't be built on the same engine as well. Also art direction not only means nothing, but in your eyes doesn't take a lot of time to establish. You sir, are to be taken seriously at all times.

They can, they certainly can, but SIX GODDAMN YEARS of development time using the same engine, and this is what was produced? Seems like a waste to me. They should have been able to do a lot more in 6 years, A LOT MORE.
 
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