BioShock 2

[Armchair General]

  ThunderPeel2001 said:

THAT'S AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I don't need to play Bioshock 2.

I told you it was worth it:eek:

Andy

[juffo wup]

This game makes me feel like a better gamer.

I think that in most games, I'm crippled by my min/maxing compulsion. Right now for example, I'm halfway through KotOR 2 and loving it, I think most would think I'm ruining my play by constantly alt-tabbing out to make sure I'm not missing opportunities to gain influence with my guys.

Bioshock 2 is so freeing: is this what it's like for regular people to play video games?

I fill up on the good ammo, which makes me allowed to use it. I fill up with money, which lets (makes!) me spend it. I know I won't buy all those tonics so I only have to buy the ones I want.

In a million little ways, this game scratched my RPG itch in ways that are new to me.

[Roderick]

Jackie Rodkins Tell me Hot Scoops was behind this shenanigan! I laughed out loud when I cam across that.

I'm not far yet, but so far this has been the ride: the first two hours I was incredibly jaded and the game couldn't interest me. Then after you encounter the first Big Daddy again, suddenly it's like YEAH, LET'S DO THIS! Right now I'm enjoying it hugely again. Storywise it's definitely not as bad as I had imagined it (so far!), and the characters are pretty cool.

Good job, Two Hot Scoops.

[Coldkill]

Is it just me that's having unbearable graphical issues with this game? I'm only able to play for around 2 minutes before the game just... well gives up and fucking dies.

[Roderick]

I hear the PS3 version is a little buggier than the Xbox version? The only bugs I've had so far are a few audio logs not playing when they pop up on screen, but that was an isolated incident.

[Coldkill]

I'm playing the Steam version (PC) and get some horrible graphic problems. It seems like there's a huge memory leak as well in there. At the moment, it's unplayable which is annoying because I don't think I can return it for a refund.

[Brannigan]

  Coldkill said:

I'm playing the Steam version (PC) and get some horrible graphic problems. It seems like there's a huge memory leak as well in there. At the moment, it's unplayable which is annoying because I don't think I can return it for a refund.

Never had an issue with it. Typically you can get a refund through steam support if the game simply doesn't run on your pc. What's your specs?

[elmuerte]

I run it on max resolution (1680x1050) and settings, and it runs like water from a broken pipe. Maybe it's because I don't use the Steam version.

Anyway, is it just me or does the game feel "off". The UI is quite horribly unpolished: low details graphics, misalign labels on buttons, etc. The default button layout is a bit weird, "b" for hacking and then needing to press "f"... Why not use "b" and "b". Better yet, use "g" because that's easier to reach from WASD. Also, it feels like Daddy is always running at high speed, also under water. I'm quite sure Daddy didn't walk that fast in the short experience in Bioshock 1. So far the level design in Bioshock 2 is also quite off. It feels a lot like specially crafted rooms rather than a city with blocked paths.

[Brannigan]

  elmuerte said:

I run it on max resolution (1680x1050) and settings, and it runs like water from a broken pipe. Maybe it's because I don't use the Steam version.

Anyway, is it just me or does the game feel "off". The UI is quite horribly unpolished: low details graphics, misalign labels on buttons, etc. The default button layout is a bit weird, "b" for hacking and then needing to press "f"... Why not use "b" and "b". Better yet, use "g" because that's easier to reach from WASD. Also, it feels like Daddy is always running at high speed, also under water. I'm quite sure Daddy didn't walk that fast in the short experience in Bioshock 1. So far the level design in Bioshock 2 is also quite off. It feels a lot like specially crafted rooms rather than a city with blocked paths.

I haven't noticed anything bad about graphics at all. The only thing that bugged me was that alot of the input prompts don't change after you change your keys. "Hit f to save the little sister" when I changed that key to E.

Also I use the steam version, because I'm lazy and buy everything off Steam. No performance issues.

[Coldkill]

  Brannigan said:

Never had an issue with it. Typically you can get a refund through steam support if the game simply doesn't run on your pc. What's your specs?

I'll try it, but my computer meets the recommended requirements which really annoys me. Ah well, here's to trying!

[Roderick]

OK, I finished Bioshock 2 the other day and now I'm going to talk about the ending and such.

  Reveal hidden contents

First off, like I said, after the initial first 2 hours which to me were boring and disappointingly in-your-face (none of the subtle creepy buildup from the original's beginning), I really started digging it. This feeling really held throughout the entire game. I was completely into Rapture again, loving all the audio diaries and little details. Fantastic.

The thing that eventually struck me though, was how wildly conservative the game is. If you look at it, all the changes are merely cosmetic. A new enemy here and there, changing this character for that one (with the exact same role), etc. It feels as if the designers were afraid to break what they had and contented themselves with making a game that is in all respects a remake of Bioshock. Being harsh, that sort of makes this, as I had predicted way back before a sequel was even announced, a supremely unnecessary game. That doesn't take away that it's highly competently made and extremely fun to play, but it has little reason to be except to provide an obligatory sequel.

A few things I didn't like: the increased linearity. Bioshock was already disappointingly linear (even then I would have imagined the game could have been a lot better if the world had been more openended, or have some sort of hub where the player returned level after level, which could feature cool changes over time), but at least it gave you the rarely used option to return to previous areas. Bioshock 2 doesn't, but -surprise!- in this game I actually wanted to! To find the Power to the People machines I had missed and, more annoyingly, to come into contact with the earliest type of enemy to research. You hardly get a chance to research them properly since they don't appear after the first few levels and then it's touch luck getting the increased wallet size.

I was also disappointed with the ending. There's no endboss, but instead that most boring of gaming conventions: the gauntlet of enemies. I can never understand why people think that's such a good idea: throwing piles of enemies on you in the same room. It's the reason I greatly dislike games like God of War and Ninja Gaiden. I think it's cheap and stupid. To have that aspect be the climactic confrontation is a letdown.

More annoyingly, the entire final level was kind of a bummer. The penultimate level (outer Persephony) featured such a fantastic gameplay thing where you became a little sister, seeing the world through her eyes. That was amazing, sheer genius. In the larger game, it definitely served the purpose of the 'would you kindly' shock/twist. As such I was prepared for the game to end shortly after. But no, instead it featured another huge level that was actually mostly pretty boring (apart from the Sinclair bit in prison). My focus and enjoyment was whittled down completely after that great little sister bit.

So I felt it really ended on a down note. Oh and I also had the feeling my backstory wasn't really finished. I was a dude who went down to Rapture in a sub on my own? And Ryan thought I may have been a spook? But it never really become clear what the hell I was doing there for real. Or maybe I just missed an entire room full of audio logs.

Of course, the spear gun made up for a lot. Would you like to harpoon that guy to the wall behind him? Why yes, yes I would, thank you.

For Bioshock 3 (which with Bioshock 2 recently selling 3m copies is another inevitability) I would like 2K to take a chance and step out of the mold. Make Rapture more openended. Oblivion-Rapture. Fallout-Rapture. But with audiologs.

[Kolzig]

I'm not going to play the game as I don't feel the need to because the first one is good enough on it's own, but

  Reveal hidden contents

is the Bioshock 2 spear gun similar or the same as the stake gun in Painkiller? I just suddenly was reminded about that when I read Rodi's thoughts about the game.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Kolzig

[elmuerte]

Just finished it. And like others I'm quite a bit disappointed with it.

The game itself, but also the isolated levels are just way to linear with some backtracking (and finding new enemies). Pretty much everything in the world has significant to the story. There are hardly any audio logs concerning different topic as it was the case in Bioshock 1. Every level is pretty much the same thing, walk to A, then to B, go to C, then back to B to go to D and E (to get a 'key'), return to A to continue to the next level. Kill a big daddy for a little sister. Harvest adam 2 times (right after you plugged the room with all the traps you have), repeat 2 or 3 times, and then kill a big sister.

Hardly any interesting puzzles, the brown legs, red face, blue arms, yellow eyes was probably the most interesting puzzle. I also like the small "transportation plasmid" section.

The should have done some more interesting things with underwater big daddy action, rather than just walking from A to B an maybe pick up some stuff along the way.

[Kolzig]

http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/3/10/the-aquatic-life-of-dennis-chamberland-one-man-s-quest-to-colonize-the-sea

Real life Andrew Ryan?

[syntheticgerbil]

  elmuerte said:

I don't have anything to add to this thread since I haven't played Bioshock 2, but I just wanted to positive troll and say this image looks great! Are there more?

[elmuerte]

  syntheticgerbil said:

I don't have anything to add to this thread since I haven't played Bioshock 2, but I just wanted to positive troll and say this image looks great! Are there more?

[Armchair General]

  elmuerte said:

...Anyway, is it just me or does the game feel "off". The UI is quite horribly unpolished: low details graphics, misalign labels on buttons, etc. The default button layout is a bit weird, "b" for hacking and then needing to press "f"... Why not use "b" and "b". Better yet, use "g" because that's easier to reach from WASD. Also, it feels like Daddy is always running at high speed, also under water. I'm quite sure Daddy didn't walk that fast in the short experience in Bioshock 1. So far the level design in Bioshock 2 is also quite off. It feels a lot like specially crafted rooms rather than a city with blocked paths...

Snap. Very forgettable in my opinion.

[Sombre]

Bummer that I sat in a lobby for 25 minutes and can't find a multiplayer game. I was looking forward to it, but I guess not.

[mikemariano]

Say what you will about Bioshock 2. Based on

, Bioshock 3 is going to be awesome.

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[toblix]

I've played this for quite a bit, and it was okay. While the environments and atmosphere were every bit as fantastic as the first game, the combat really irked me. I kept getting stressed out by always running out of ammo, and then having to change weapon and ammy type while being pummeled and shot. However, I came over an awesome spell that turns the combat into what I would prefer it to be all the way from the beginning. It prevents you from using firearms, but reduces the mana cost for all the spells. So now I only have to focus on which spell to use, and make sure I don't run out of the single type of ammo I use. I get that most gamerz dudez would find a game with only one weapon positively gay, but I find it lets me concentrate more on the awesome points of the game. Anyway, I just went by a suspicious gas pump. I'm getting the feeling I'm close to the end, but I got that mid-way in Bioshock too, so who knows.

[Murdoc]

  Kolzig said:

http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/3/10/the-aquatic-life-of-dennis-chamberland-one-man-s-quest-to-colonize-the-sea

Real life Andrew Ryan?

awesome. not to hijack the thread but the nutter is still trying to get this thing going

  Quote

The First Atlantica Expedition Will Begin on Monday, July 4th, 2011

Three Aquanauts – Dennis Chamberland, Claudia Chamberland and Art Ortolani, will submerge in the Leviathan Habitat and set a new world’s record for uninterrupted stay beneath the surface shattering the previous record of 69 days set by Aquanaut Rick Presley. Rotating in five day visits, 24 other aquanauts will rotate through the Leviathan including scientists, teachers, journalists and even Aquanaut Rick Presley! Then in 2013, the Challenger Station habitat – the largest manned undersea habitat ever built, will be launched off the Florida coast and establish the first permanent undersea human colony.Our efforts do not represent an underwater hotel, not an outpost or a way-station, not a laboratory. We are a human community. We are the first humans who will move there and stay with no intention of ever calling dry land our home again. We represent the first generation of a people who will live out their lives beneath the sea.

Like the three prongs of Poseidon’s Trident, we enter the oceans as permanent residents to enable our three linked prime objectives: the carving our of a permanent human niche - so that – we can intelligently monitor and protect the ocean environment – so that – we can teach our children through our educational programs that the oceans of the earth are the essential life blood and must be understood, protected and preserved as a primary human activity. All three of these primary objectives are so linked that they are inseparable. We literally cannot accomplish the one without the other. We do not dare to dominate, we do not dare to intrude, but we set out to witness, to record and find ways to defend, shield and protect. In so doing, to teach the next generation that we are caretakers and protectors – not miners, not owners and not rulers. The age of a new kind of human civilization has dawned. With the Atlantica Expeditions, the ocean will form the frontier of the aquatic human whose new colonies will seed a new empire of human dominion of the earth.

[Inphidel]

I still have not gotten more then 2 hours into this game. its like yay! i'm back in rapture. and then its like ohh boo. its not as cool anymore. :<

I find myself wishing they'd just remake system shock 2 - and fix it up with that community made multiplayer patch.

tho i do have a fun story with that mod having to do with trying to share ammo with a friend and having it turn into unmovable game props spawning from my backpack

[toblix]

Okay, so I'm not really big on DLC, but this I'm getting for sure. Why? Apparently Steve Gaynor is writer and lead designer.

[Podunk]

  toblix said:

Okay, so I'm not really big on DLC, but this I'm getting for sure. Why? Apparently Steve Gaynor is writer and lead designer.

That's really cool. I saw the blurb earlier today and wondered if Steve was involved.

[Steve]

  toblix said:

Okay, so I'm not really big on DLC, but this I'm getting for sure. Why? Apparently Steve Gaynor is writer and lead designer.

DAMN STRAIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS WHAT'S UP NOW