darthbator

I too was let down by the idea of having some kind of "monster" in this. I'm pretty much with Twig here.

I think the discussion arising about the quality of the game is interesting. There's a lot of blow back about dissonance of the violence of the combat (which I gotta guess is intentional) and the amount of combat in the game (which I gotta agree does wear it's welcome). I think a lot of us that love games the most (most people here) are currently VERY locked up in proving that games can be more then they are and really serve as common experiential ground that doesn't necessarily involve a trillion murders. However I don't think we often realize we're in a minority. Ultimately Bioshock Infinite is a revenue generating product released by Take Two. It's not an art house independent game. To justify the amount of money spent building out that gorgeous world they need to sell lots of video games. I said it earlier in this post I've played this game with a few friends to completion. They where much more enamored with ripping people apart in this amazing world then actually exploring it. Excess death just sold 2 copies of that game. I can't imagine that's an uncommon experience.

I think that's because Ryan was the character basically driving the philosophical angle of Bioshock 1. He was the character that most personified the idea of objectivism. I do not feel Comstock is the character exemplifying the core idea of Infinite. He's just "the bad guy" in many many respects. I'm dancing around spoilers here but since you know what's coming maybe you get where I'm coming from? I'm not so sure about that. Maybe I just read to deeply into these sort of things but in games with those silent protagonists I always feel the developer is going to extra mile to try and really tie "me" into that character. Aside from any story line mumbojumbo Booker espouses a perspective on this world. He's a present character that is contesting for my attention. Bioshcok 1 dude doesn't have any perspective on anything. I'm assigning all of that to him. I can't even remember Bioshock guys name... So I guess in the stream of the story both of those dudes are those dudes (Booker and Bioshock man). However experentially I feel that Bioshock man was more me. It's one of the reasons I feel that game worked better for me. My avatar was never telling me how to interpret anything.

I thought combat was far better then in the original shock but was still the low point of the game. Alternate realities man!

I think the game plays fine. I'm not really one of the detractors. I leveled the hand cannon and the carbine style rile to their completion. I think I had some level 1 upgrades to the shotgun and machine gun by the endgame as well. I upgraded crows and possession as much as possible cause they let me most easily control the battlefield. I also had the chain lightning upgrade and some extra damage on the fire nades. I can't really remember what kind of gear I used. The only thing that I noticed was something that gave me salt @ 40% of my kills. I also got the increased shield recharge rate, which is always welcome (although I don't think it showed up until half way through the game). I don't think there's anything wrong with the game play. It just felt like it turned into a lot of me stun locking a crowd of guys and then just spraying bullets into them over and over and over. Alternatively I would just continually jump on and off the rails executing people since that seemed to be basically the quickest way to off "annoyance" class enemies.

Use vigors to limit enemy mobility -> shoot things in the head

They house her freakishly large scarily empathetic eyes!

This is clearly still the case

I think the complaint about the money is less about the fact that she gives you free stuff (which is awesome) but about when and how she does it. Sometimes she'll interrupt dialog between me and another character or even odder do that JUST after finishing some conversation that was emotionally significant. They do such an amazing job making you empathize with her that when she does something super "AI'ish" I think it just REALLY stands out. Uncanny behavioral valley or something of the sort.

I feel like the game is intentionally opaque. From what I understand the Dark $thing series is based on the designers experiences reading western fantasies without being able to fully understand the English language. So from what I understand a lot of that is him attempting to tell a mechanical story about how masked that experience was to him. I will admit the game does a LOT to cultivate a very specific kind of feeling in the player and I feel it really succeeds. I'm still playing through it and I have still refrained from touching a wiki. However that's lead to multiple instances of me putting it down for months t at a time. I'm thinking I'll print myself a tshirt if I ever finish that thing.

Fun fact, the Star Wars martial art "Teras Kasi" (remember that horrid fighting game?). Is based on the real life martial art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencak_Silat'>Pentjak Silat. The author of Shadows of the Empire (and creator of Dash Rendar!) is something of a martial arts nerd and trained under my teacher here in LA in the 80's I believe. The word Teras Kasi is actually just a phonetic expression of the Behasa word for "thank you" (terima kasih), something he probably used because it's traditionally said when leaving most training areas.

Yeah I feel that vis a liz. If you've read through this thread a topic of discussion has kinda been how that element of the story (the race and religion angle) really backseats itself into irrelevance as the game becomes more about other things. The opinion on the general net seems to be sort of divided about it. I'm actually rather glad this didn't end up being a game primarily about cartoonishly overt racism.

I believe that crew name generator was populated with kickstarter backers.

I feel like there is no goldilocks difficulty for the first play through. Hard is a lot more restrictive. By the end of the game enemies feel like total bullet sponges and you're not getting to bomb around the environmental feeling all cool. You're just hiding out and popping out to take an occasional shot. Normal is just easy.

Can I not delete my own posts? Accidentally made a double here!

That crow aid made that game easy mode IMO. That and the centurian shielding vigor make the game almost absurdly easy. IMO. I did not find any of the combos!?! Where/how do those show up. I have done 2 play throughs now and somehow I have NEVER seen this! What? I don't really think Infinite is doing much of anything new. If anything it's given a new high water mark for art direction and world presentation in video games. Even it's strongest elements are IMO well treaded ground. Not to say it's not an incredible game but I don't really feel like it did anything "new" or "different. I just think it executed very cleanly on it's extremely traditional elements. I actually find this to be a way way way more video gamey video game then the original Bioshock was.

I mean it's no 360 controller (the thumb sticks aren't staggered and the triggers are pretty junky, not to mention the PS3 controller doesn't have concaved thumb cradles!). However I am totally sure it'll be nicer then the default OUYA controller.

I got to wear one at GDC this year (I totally hit that line AS the show floor was opening, I thankfully did not have to wait to long). I was actually really impressed. Especially considering how skeptical I have been about this thing in general.

I am of the impression those skylines are about as good as they possibly could be without slamming into technical limitations on map size or running into design problems where they're just not fun. They do introduce an element of verticality to the combat arenas and they provide a really strong freedom of general movement around those areas. However I think they're really best used as transportation and not as combat mechanics. They did a really phenomenal job of conveying speed while providing you look independence. I feel like the strongest use of those are when they're whisking you passed 100 foot golden statues and less when you're zipping through a combat zone.

I got throw off by GDC and then Bioshock Infinite. Hopefully I get back on track with 11 and 12 today. I'm sure I can post some impressions once we finish or something =P I always mean to come back here and contribute and something always seems to get in the way.

That's a sort of interesting way of looking at things. I don't generally view DLC as being part of the "boxed product". Maybe not a good method of thinking considering how games are being delivered and monetized now.

I held their prototype controller at a few events. There's not a lot to like about that thing. Thankfully it looks like you'll be able to get PS3 controllers to pair with the ouya. With any luck we won't need to use them anyways.