First 5 minutes of Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea

GameTrailers has just posted the first five minutes of the upcoming DLC for Bioshock Infinite. Burial at Sea will follow Booker and Elizabeth in yet another timeline from those they hopped back and forth through in the main game, this time seeing the duo explore Rapture on the eve of its descent into chaos. As it turns out, Booker has been called upon by Elizabeth to find a young girl who went missing recently, and who he presumes is dead. However, Elizabeth promises him worthy compensation for his cooperation, as she believes there is far more to the story than what Booker has pieced together on his own. The city of Rapture looks stunningly gorgeous, and it's really cool that we get to see its populous going about their everyday lives and having relaxed conversations, entirely unaware of the chaos that is about to unfold. While I certainly hope the creative staff expands upon the use of tears in gameplay, I'm also curious to see which familiar faces make a return in Burial at Sea. In this five minute sampling alone, Booker mentions Sullivan's name, Fontaine seems to be rather important with his orphanage and Little Sisters being immediately recognized by Rapture's citizens, and there is even a poster for one of Sander Cohen's musical works on display.

Bioshock Infinite DLC packs announced

Back when Bioshock Infinite launched, Irrational Studios promised there would be DLC packs, and that players could save some dough by bundling them in a season pass. Now we finally have trailers to show for these DLC releases, the first of which is known as Clash in the Clouds and the second being titled Burial at Sea. Clash in the Clouds appears to be a horde mode/endurance mode, not unlike Bioshock 2's Protector Trials, though the Infinite maps seem a bit larger and offer up skylines, vigors, and many of Columbia's strongest foes. Clash in the Clouds is available today for $4.99 or 400 Microsoft points.



Burial at Sea appears to be the far more intriguing package, offering up yet another alternate timeline/universe where Booker and Elizabeth existed in Andrew Ryan's city of Rapture. The plot is said to chronicle the events that led to the city's downfall, something that I had hoped they would include as a DLC pack for the previous two Bioshock titles or even make an important plot point (if not the main focus) of a future Bioshock title set in Rapture. Nevertheless, players will finally be able to experience Rapture's decline firsthand, and frankly the presentation of the city and its inhabitants looks better than ever. No release date has currently been announced for Burial at Sea, though Irrational Games states that it is 'coming soon' - considering the decent gap since Infinite's original retail release, I can't imagine they would wait too long past the end of the summer to release this DLC pack.

Top 10 Games of the Seventh Generation Consoles - #3: Bioshock and Bioshock 2

The opening to the original Bioshock was an interactive sequence that blew me away when I first played it. Six years later, I still consider it to be one of the (if not the single) best introductory sequences in any video game. While the brief monologue Jack relays moments before his plane crashes into the ocean serve to provide players with some inkling of who he is and what is to come, it’s still deliberately vague. The game takes you (the player) and protagonist Jack from a familiar setting and thrusts you into a strange, dangerous, and yet ever-intriguing environment: the city of Rapture.

Bioshock is a curious game in the sense that most of the story is conveyed to Jack via audio diaries and radio chatter from both Atlas and Andrew Ryan. To tell more than to show is always a risky formula for a game, but having Jack enter Rapture after it has already gone to hell in a hand basket allows players to focus more on the hauntingly gorgeous setting. Little Sisters urge their Big Daddy protectors on to new corpses, blissfully unaware of the walking guinea pigs they have been transformed into. Sander Cohen has Jack go on a murderous scavenger hunt to gain passage through Fort Frolic. And the direct interactions Jack has with characters like Cohen, Tenenbaum, and Ryan cultivate one of the game’s most important aspects – choice.

While the core of Bioshock will remain the same for each and every player, there is a significant degree of freedom to how the game is experienced. Aside from the option to save or harvest the Little Sisters for precious ADAM, players can choose which weapons and plasmids to upgrade. They can choose to explore areas not important to their current objectives to better explore the fallen city, and they can choose to pick up or not pick up audio diaries that would better inform them of what led to Rapture becoming a such a horrifying place.

While most would argue that the story of the first Bioshock is superior to the sequel, I would argue that the method of storytelling in Bioshock 2 trumps that of its predecessor. The ‘stranger in a strange land’ approach does not work particularly well in a second visit to the same locale, and 2K avoided this problem altogether by putting players in the boots of a Big Daddy named Subject Delta. One of the original Big Daddies, Delta is far more powerful and intelligent than the typical Bouncer or Rosie and can wield much more powerful variants of the weapons Jack previously used. Because players would already know the fate of the characters from the first game, there was no reason to pull a ‘smoke and mirrors’ routine. Bioshock 2 gave players the run of the place almost instantly, and expands upon the stories of major characters that shaped the experience of the first game, while also introducing all-new characters who were key in both the rise and fall of Andrew Ryan’s underwater utopia-turned-dystopia.

Bioshock 2 looks better, sounds better, and - most importantly - plays better than its predecessor. Chunks of coral and more heavily flooded areas give players a sense that Rapture has decayed even further since their last visit. The gun controls are more tight and the hacking process distracts less from the core gameplay. As a Big Daddy, you are certainly tougher than any normal human, but then again, the splicers have mutated so far along that they are more dangerous and creepy than ever.

It would be inaccurate to state that the Bioshock titles belong to the horror genre. While certainly spooky, they consistently utilize elements from action, adventure, and RPG genres. But if there is one thing that can unquestionably be stated about Bioshock and Bioshock 2, it is that they are two of the most thought-provoking games of their day, due to the ideologies they bring into play and the questions they raise – not just within the context of Rapture, but also for the people who make and play video games.

Xbox 360 review: Bioshock Infinite

Though it shares many gameplay elements and plot themes with its predecessors, Bioshock Infinite is set in a place and time very different than Andrew Ryan's city beneath the sea. The year is 1912 and protagonist Booker Dewitt has accumulated debts so significant that his only remaining means of repaying them is apparently to travel to the floating city of Columbia and retrieve a young woman named Elizabeth. While Jack experienced Rapture after it had fallen into chaos and disrepair, Booker enters Columbia shortly before it is scheduled to go to hell in a hand basket. His initial encounters with citizens - children, police officers, carnival-goers - do not see the inclusion of gunplay, save for a few carnival games that act as quick tutorials. While technology such as mechanical horses, the skyline rail transportation system, and the large balloons that keep buildings afloat are more fantasy than factual, the game does a remarkable job at balancing the two and creating a world that, highly creative as it is, allows players to suspend their disbelief for the less than fifteen hours it will take to complete Bioshock Infinite.

The Unreal Engine has certainly showed its age over the past few years, but Infinite does a nice job of masking the majority of the engine's shortcomings or simply avoiding flaws altogether through elements of its design. While the highest settings on the PC version of the game look downright gorgeous, the console release still looks impressive and is a significant step up from the visuals of the previous two Bioshock titles. Rays of light dance across rooftops and down alleys, while the occasional storm appears as dark and foreboding as it does dangerously powerful. Columbia is brightly colored and its citizens full of life. They have a lot to say, with those loyal to Comstock being a generally racist and prejudiced lot, and those loyal to revolutionist Daisy Fitzroy's Vox Populi camp being equally passionate and violent. The exchanges shared between Booker and Elizabeth, the ideas festering in the minds of Columbia's denizens, the billboards and posters that decorate the floating cityscape - all of it goes a long way toward immersing players in this fictional world. And with such a perfect balance of steampunk-style characters and vehicles with real-world events and ideologies presented, Bioshock Infinite is nearly as much a work of science fiction and fantasy as it is a period piece on 1912 America.

The combination of vigors and guns does not feel as wildly inventive as it did when it debuted in the original Bioshock nearly six years ago. There are a few guns that are thrown in the mix that are fun to use, impractical as they may be for facing down larger groups of foes (especially on the higher difficulty settings). Meanwhile, there are more automatic and semi-automatic firearms than need be. Whereas Irrational Games and 2K hit the nail on the head with the types of guns available in Rapture, there are some in Columbia that simply aren't needed. Because they are older weapons, the kickback on automatic firearms is greater and the range of rifles somewhat limited. It's a nice touch of authenticity on Irrational Games' part, and thankfully none of the guns feel terribly clunky. Booker can also get up close and personal with enemies, smacking them silly with the end of his skyrail hook, and finishing them off in genuinely brutal and bloody ways. Still, aside from the occasional use of a crank gun that Booker can salvage from a downed Motorized Patriot, none of these weapons evoke the same guilty pleasure as dispatching Rapture's splicers with the spear gun or drill.

Vigors are a welcome variation of the familiar plasmids, as Booker is capable of utilizing each for both ranged attacks and traps - much like Bioshock 2 allowed you to add a dash of lightning or fire to a cyclone trap, but without demanding the extra trouble of layering two separate vigors on top of each other and spending double the salts (Infinite's equivalent of EVE hypos) in the process. Though vigors see more varied application than the almost exclusively straightforward-combat purposes of plasmids, some will outlive their usefulness early on - interestingly enough, most of these are ones that attempt to break conventional use. Though the game does explain why vigors exist in Columbia in brief, they are not as integral to the story as plasmids were to the downfall of Rapture, due to the lack of nasty mind-addling and physically mutating side effects.

Skylines connect the different parts of Columbia, acting as a sort of railroad in the sky for the people to transport goods from one portion of the city to the other. Though you will occasionally see box cars on the move, the primary uses of the sky rails for gameplay purposes are divided between transportation for Booker and Elizabeth and a means for Booker to gain the upper hand on his enemies, firing upon them as he zips by. This means of mobile combat works surprisingly well, as Booker can speed up and slow down, and can even lunge toward any enemies that might attempt to pursue him via the same skyline, knocking them back to ground or even to certain doom through the clouds. When Booker and Elizabeth are not in the sights of enemy guns, the skyrails present an exciting new view of Columbia, and are much like a roller coaster.

Whereas the Rapture titles incorporated Tonics as a means of bonus abilities, Bioshock Infinite allows you to seek out and equip different articles of clothing. Up to four can be worn at a time, and these include (but are not limited to) typical defense/offense bonuses, increasing the likelihood that you will receive ammo drops from defeated foes, the ability to temporarily stun foes when attacking with a certain weapon, gaining brief invulnerability after dismounting from a skyline, and replenishing health after melee kills. Infusions can also be found throughout Columbia, with some of them more or less shoved in your face and others hidden in some rather hard-to-find (or sometimes, easy-to-overlook) locations. Infusions are used to upgrade the capacities of Booker's health, shields, and salts, though when it all boils down to it, it's generally the best bet to simply boost shields and salts, since foes have to break through Booker's shields to damage his health.

Much like Rapture's audio diaries told the tale of the fall of that city, the Voxophones scattered throughout Columbia present private recordings by the likes of a young girl enchanted by Elizabeth named Constance Fields, industrialist Jeremiah Fink, Booker's old military comrade Slate, and many more. While these are nowhere near as prominent for filling in plot holes as they were in the previous two Bioshock titles, they still serve well to expand the storyline and better flesh out the major characters. For those curious about the founding of Columbia and the ongoing conflict between Comstock loyalists and the Vox Populi, there are kinetoscopes - black and white silent films that last about twenty seconds a piece - that are as much propaganda pieces for the people of Columbia as the radio announcements decrying Frank Fontaine as public enemy number one were for the people of Rapture.

While Songbird is perhaps the most iconic specialized enemy in the game, he is more a plot device than anything else. The other Big Daddy-style enemy Booker will encounter is the Handyman, a fast-moving, heavy-hitting (literally, since he punches and throws objects) man in a clockwork suit. The Handyman is not particularly smart, but Booker almost always encounters one when he is taking on a group of enemies, requiring you, the player, to divide your attention between them. The Handyman's weak spot is his heart, contained in some sort of glass chamber within the center of his chest. Any attempts to avoid the Handyman by jumping onto a nearby skyline will be a short-lived experience, as the clockwork monster can attach himself to the rails and electrify them to damage Booker.

There are turrets that fire different ammunitions found in some of Columbia's more fortified locations, but most are rather easy to destroy. The Motorized Patriot, on the other hand, is a force to be reckoned with as he is essentially a fast and highly-mobile turret. Inspired by the Hall of Presidents animatronic likenesses of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, these automatons recite patriotic rhymes as they spray rounds from their crank guns. The Boys of Silence harken back to the more horror-driven elements of the original Bioshock titles, acting as cameras that will summon many enemies to swarm Booker if they detect him. Meanwhile, the Firemen and Crows are basically just slightly specialized characters who can utilize a single vigor and have greater health than most footsoldiers.

Social unrest in Columbia has given rise to the Vox Populi, a revolutionary group that means to raise arms against Comstock's men. Part of the game will see Booker and Elizabeth attempting to track down munitions for Daisy Fitzroy and the rest of the Vox, and over the course of this the two gain a much different perspective of the conflict - one from the slums of Columbia. While there is a decent payoff with the Vox Populi subplot, as a group they come across largely as a typical gun-toting gang upset with the current status quo. Daisy Fitzroy isn't in the game much, save for a few key exchanges with Booker, though it feels like Irrational Games had something much greater in mind. Unfortunately, what is included in the game isn't nearly as interesting as what might have been.

The choices you make at a few junctures in the game aren't really as important in the grand scheme of things as the game originally leads you to believe. Decisions like which pendant Elizabeth should choose or the potential for Booker to get stabbed in the hand offer little more than minor aesthetic changes in the appearance of these characters. Falling off the city's edge simply results in Booker respawning where he stood moments before, with no reduction in health or salts, so on the off chance that you accidentally jump too far too fast or mistakenly jump off the skyline at a point where there is no ground to catch you, it's as simple as "no harm, no foul". Much like the previous games utilized Vita-Chambers to overcome the issue of the protagonists' mortality, Infinite has Booker relive a dream sequence, opening the door to his apartment and stepping back out to the streets of Columbia each time he 'dies'. Each death has a small price attached to it, however - Booker will lose some money, only respawn with half his health, though he will have some salts and ammo at his disposal. His enemies, on the other hand, will have regained some of their own health.

While Booker does not have Elizabeth at his side for the first hour or so of his exploration of Columbia, the game is plotted as such with good reason - the idea is that you familiarize yourself with the Vigors and guns available, as well as take time to breathe in the world around Booker, before zeroing in on the girl he's come to rescue and getting the real story underway. Almost immediately following Booker's partnership with Elizabeth, the game informs you that she can handle herself, and that there is no need to keep an eye on her during firefights. Instead, Elizabeth can scrounge up salts, ammo, and health for Booker, tossing them to him in the midst of battle. The amount of what she finds is limited, however, and one should not rely on her entirely. A few hours into Bioshock Infinite, after Elizabeth has become more trusting of Booker, she will offer the idea of opening tears in reality to provide Booker with barricades for cover, sky hooks so he can gain a better vantage point for firing, and even friendly turrets. While these are all useful enough, it is a bit disappointing to see the use of these tears limited to three basic, repetitive uses, though they are what most distinctly separates Bioshock Infinite's core gameplay from that of the original two games.

Elizabeth is a genuinely interesting companion character, and is - at least for the better portion of the game - arguably a more interesting study than Booker. While we know from the start that Booker was sent to retrieve Elizabeth as a means to rid himself of his debts, that's really all we get for quite some time, but is really all we need for that period as well. Elizabeth has been stuck in her tower for her entire life, interacting only with Songbird and blissfully unaware of the fact that she has long been both the central object of the study of opening the tears in Columbia and Prophet Comstock's heir. When Booker breaks her out of her cage, Elizabeth's behavior is equal parts curious and vengeful - she has never seen or interacted with so many regular people and places a great deal of trust in Booker as he is the only individual to have ever attempted to free her from her prison, yet she fails to understand what it is Comstock wants with her and why he would simultaneously spout forth holy words and rain cannon fire down upon Booker.

Truth be told, Bioshock Infinite is not a terribly challenging game. If you've completed the other two on normal difficulty, you should find Infinite's hard mode to be comparable. However, regardless of the difficulty setting, there are some notable spikes in the challenge factor during the game's last few hours. A boss encounter or two will require plenty of ammo and salts, and the waves of footsoldiers aiming to foil Booker and Elizabeth's plans will require plenty of patience, strategy, and the ability to act quickly on your feet. It's not an unwelcome addition by any means, but the fact that the spike in difficulty is so sudden proves, at the very least, a bit frustrating. One of the inclusions Irrational Games touted prior to Infinite's release was that of a 1999 Mode, which was meant to amp up the difficulty factor even more so. In reality, the foes Booker faces in this mode aren't notably more challenging than they are on the 'hard' setting. However, since Booker loses some cash each time he dies, 1999 Mode presents the possibility of an actual 'game over' - if you run out of sufficient money for a respawn, then you are sent back to the main menu.

The final portion of Bioshock Infinite plays out in a manner not quite the same as the traditional reliance on the combination of vigors and firearms. It does, however, answer the vast majority of those important questions not laid to rest during the course of the main game. While nearly all of it makes sense, there is one bit that goes against principles laid out since the early hours of the game. As such, this particular point comes across as not only self-contradictory, but a cheap cop-out as well. Nonetheless, Irrational Games should be commended for everything else the story does right, and for creating such an adventurous new narrative. There's simply not enough new or expansive in terms of gameplay to rank this game among the greatest of this generation's consoles.

My rating: 8.25 (out of 10)

Bioshock Infinite delayed

Yesterday, Irrational Games announced a new release date for Bioshock Infinite. While the game was originally slated to be released on October 16th of this year, it has been pushed back to February 26th of 2013. Irrational Games explained that they want to make the game as good as they possibly can before releasing it, which may be a hint to some new content being worked into the final product. I realize there is a certain method to the madness of delaying games and scheduling release dates, but I have mixed feelings at the moment. On the one hand, I have been looking forward to this game since the first teaser trailer was released. It was one of the big games alongside Resident Evil 6 and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron that I was most looking forward to, and late February seems like a really long ways away. On the other hand, I prefer my games to be complete and perfected to the best of the developer's abilities before they ship. I think Irrational Games knows just how important that last factor is, considering how much time and effort they put into crafting the first two Bioshock games.

Top 5 Ladies of Gaming

It's no secret that female characters in video games have generally taken to a few generic molds. There are the scantily-clad pixelated pieces of eye-candy who may or may not bear any relevance to a game's plot. There are the grumbling, rude, and (dare I say) bitchy types who are equally as obnoxious as the whiny childish brats that are seemingly meant to act as their polar opposites. While this trend has, generally speaking, improved in recent years (due in no small part to the increase in the number of female gamers), sometimes it can still prove difficult to come across a female character that plays a genuinely interesting and convincing role in a video game.

That said, some of my favorite video game characters of all time have fallen into that last category, and so I present a list of five of my favorite leading ladies in video games. The criteria I laid out when considering individuals for this list is that they do not necessarily need to be a playable character, rather that they need to hold some sort of prominent role in the grand scheme of things. Also, I limited it to one character per game series. (WARNING: There will be spoilers for those who have not played the games in which these characters appear.)

#5 - Brigid Tenenbaum: One of the minds behind the creation of the Little Sisters, Tenenbaum is a prime example of how Rapture did not discriminate against anyone hoping to make their own way in the underwater city. Along with Dr. Suchong, Tenenbaum discovered the unique properties of ADAM and the sea slugs that produced it, as well as the fact that young girls proved the best hosts for recycling ADAM. When Rapture neared its tipping point, Tenenbaum and Suchong perfected a system of bonding each Little Sister to a Big Daddy guardian, and in that regard brought about some semblance of order into a city that was on the brink of Civil War.

Brigid Tenenbaum worked on many research projects during World War II, and while the specifics of her actions are not fully known, she does inform both Jack and Subject Delta that she feels remorse for what she did during her time in Germany. After Rapture succumbed to its own complications, Tenenbaum felt it was her duty to protect the Little Sisters from the splicers running rampant throughout Ryan's dystopia. She gathered up as many of them as she could and holed up inside the safe house with them. After helping Jack break Fontaine's mind control over him, Tenenbaum asked him to watch over the Little Sisters, and entrusted him to take them with him to the surface once he had escaped, knowing that life in the outside world would be a vast improvement over their existence in Rapture.

Years after she managed her own escape from Rapture, Tenenbaum takes notice of the kidnappings of many young girls. When she realizes it to be the work of the Big Sisters, she returns to Rapture and enlists the aid of Subject Delta to finish what she started. Early on in Bioshock 2, Tenenbaum is shown to have freed another group of Little Sisters. After leaving the company of Delta, Tenenbaum makes contact with Charles Milton Porter, an old colleague, and the two depart for the surface in hopes of mustering up some sort of plan to cleanse Rapture of the chaos and fear that holds sway over it. In the end, it is never made clear what Tenenbaum's plan of attack actually is, how long it will take, nor even if it succeeds. But between the audio diaries she left around Rapture and her more recent actions, it is easy to see the growth in Tenenbaum's character, as well as her consistent resolve to see her goals reached.

#4 - Alyx Vance: Gordon Freeman's partner-in-crime for the duration of Half-Life 2 and its follow-up episodes certainly knows a thing or two about combating the Combine. As Gordon has been absent during the years since the first game, he is dropped into City 17 as a stranger in a strange land. A fair distance from any sizeable force that would bring the fight to the combine, Gordon briefly meets with Barney and Dr. Kleiner, who introduce him to Alyx Vance.

Alyx is something of a rebellious individual, going against her father's wishes as she jumps feet first into danger. But she is not someone who could be considered reckless. She has an extensive knowledge of the Combine, from their weaponry to their behavior. That said, she does find herself in a tight situation on more than one occasion, and it is up to Gordon to come to her rescue. But there is no denying how valuable a resource Alyx proves to Gordon as his guide, ally, and friend throughout the events of Half-Life 2.

#3 - Princess Zelda: The princess of Hyrule has taken on many forms over the years, from a classic medieval damsel in distress to a pirate captain that can hold her own against monsters that roam the sea. There are a few versions of Zelda that stand out to me above the rest; her incarnations from Skyward Sword, Wind Waker, and Ocarina of Time being the best of the bunch.

Skyward Sword's Zelda has arguably the most personality of them all as Link's childhood friend. There are early indications of a romantic playfulness between these two main characters, but before things can get too far along Zelda is whisked away by a tornado and begins her own separate journey on the surface world, which will one day come to be known as Hyrule. While players are not allowed to see exactly what happens during Zelda's journey until the credits roll, the game does present the sense that she is working toward a greater goal just as much as Link is.

Tetra/Zelda from Wind Waker has some attitude. She's the captain of her own ship, and unlike previous games in the series, does not seek out Link's aid early on. Rather, she reluctantly allows him to travel on her ship. She takes a liking to Link later on in the game, allowing him to help himself to her crew's stash of stolen bombs. The only problem I have with Wind Waker Zelda is that she gets shut up in Hyrule castle only moments after her true identity is revealed, though the game sort of makes up for that by making her one heck of a shot with the bow during the final fight with Ganondorf.

Ocarina of Time Zelda is the one I use as the standard to compare to all others. It is the first version of Zelda I was introduced to, and a version of the princess that is quite interesting. While she does flee Hyrule castle when Ganondorf's forces overrun it, she does not simply go into hiding. Instead, she takes on the guise of Sheik and helps Link on his quest to save the kingdom by allowing him to access new areas and providing him with advice on how to get past certain obstacles. It's true that playing the role of Sheik forces Zelda to take on some masculine characteristics in order to see that Ganondorf fails. But it also proves how resourceful and determined Zelda is to see such a plan through.

#2 - EVA: the femme fatale of Metal Gear Solid 3, EVA is presented as a enigma. On the surface, she is a spy who is both Snake's contact for inside information regarding Volgin and the Boss, and is constantly teasing him with notions of seduction. But beyond the jumpsuit and the black bikini lies a character whose story is much deeper than Snake Eater initially lets on.

Her appeal to Snake is pretty obvious. He is dropped into the middle of a jungle and not only is she his ally, but her role as his love interest is made apparent very early on. She enjoys teasing Snake, as evident in practically every one of their encounters. But EVA also recognizes the importance of their mission, and can manage flips on her motorbike and can wield a pistol like nobody's business.

EVA saves Snake's life on a couple of occasions, and it is during these moments that her character takes a more serious approach. When Snake has his doubts about the mission or still can't bring himself to come to terms with the fact that the Boss defected to Volgin's forces, EVA is there to pick Snake back up and get him on his feet again. But she isn't there to babysit him. EVA knows that Snake needs to face his own demons, despite the fact that she tries to convince him that he shouldn't face the Boss in battle.

At the end of the game, it is revealed that EVA was in fact a spy for the Chinese, who wanted to get their hands on the Philosopher's Legacy just as much as anyone else did. EVA does not tell Snake in person. Rather, she leaves him a pre-recorded tape after they spend the night together. She informs Snake of the fact that the Boss never really betrayed him, but was pinned as the scapegoat so that the U.S. could cover their tracks. EVA then apologizes to Snake for everything.

EVA could have withheld this information, and Snake would have gone on believing that the Boss had betrayed her country and her apprentice. But she chose to reveal this to him, which was largely what led to Snake's distrust in the U.S. government, and ultimately to his organizing of the Militaires Sans Frontières and Outer Heaven. EVA truly cared about Snake, enough to disassociate herself from him for years with the hope that none of her future actions would bring him pain.

#1 - Samus Aran: The original girl of gaming herself, Samus Aran first came onto the scene as a bounty hunter that gamers assumed to be male. That is, until the ending of the original NES Metroid proved otherwise. Samus' story is a classic tragedy of a girl whose family was murdered at the hands of the space pirates. She is taken in by the Chozo, and trained by Old Bird to become the most skilled bounty hunter in the galaxy.

Her arsenal includes a wide array of projectiles like missiles, the wave beam, the ice beam, the plasma beam, and the dark and light beams. Her suit can be upgraded to accommodate to different environments, such as the Gravity Suit which allows for easier movement underwater, and the Light Suit which protects Samus from the harmful air on Dark Aether. Her morph ball mode not only allows Samus access to small areas, but come equipped with bombs and a spider ball mode that magnetically attaches to certain tracks.

Samus has crossed paths with the Space Pirate forces many times, and has gone toe-to-toe with their leader Ridley on just as many occasions. She single-handedly put a stop to the threats presented by Kraid, Mother Brain, the Ing swarms, and the entire Metroid populace of SR388. She even managed to defeat doppelgangers in the forms of the SA-X and Dark Samus, and has traversed the most dank and dark of caverns on many alien worlds. Samus is a rare breed of female lead character, in the sense that she has never been changed to appeal to the sexualization of female characters. She's a cold and solitary individual, and her story is a melancholy one. But in my opinion, her character is one of the most intriguing Nintendo has ever created.

25 Days of Villains - #20: Frank Fontaine

"I had you built! I sent you topside! I took you back, showed you what you was, what you was capable of! Even that life you thought you had - that was something I dreamed of and tattooed inside your head! Now if you don't call that family, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS!"


Opposed to Andrew Ryan's methods and regulations on what could and could not be brought into Rapture, Frank Fontaine started out small. He initiated a smugglers' ring, sneaking in contraband goods while at the same time filling the role of businessman as head of Fontaine Futuristics. When ADAM became the next big thing, Fontaine began marketing it through plasmids and gene tonics, hiring a research team to speed up the process.

While Ryan was initially pleased with Fontaine's progress, he changed his tune after learning of Fontaine's organized crime. With tensions rising between the two, Fontaine plotted his scheme to take control of Rapture. He had Ryan's illegitimate son psychologically conditioned to respond to key phrases, then sent him to the surface. Having faked his death in a shootout, Fontaine left the public eye, leaving Ryan with a sense of false security and some of the working class citizens with a sense of discontentment.

Fontaine then reemerged as Atlas, an Irish man who appeared to be a hero for the common man. Atlas and his followers incited a rebellion against Ryan, sparking the Civil War of Rapture and sending the city into a downward spiral. But he had no means to exit Rapture, so Fontaine/Atlas activated his sleeper agent, Jack Ryan, setting in motion the events of the first Bioshock.

Fontaine is certainly more memorable through the mannerisms of his Atlas alter ego. His aims are that of power and greed, though he is willing to sacrifice any number of lives to get there. He manipulates his sleeper agent and eventually attempts to send him out with a slow and painful death once Tenenbaum comes to Jack's aid. Fontaine is a criminal mastermind, and his plans to overtake the city nearly succeeded. My only complaint is that his final boss fight is way too easy, despite the fact that he does look pretty cool as a monstrous version of the statue on the cover of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Halloween special - five scariest video games

In the spirit of the Halloween season, I thought it appropriate to visit some video games that did a really great job of creeping me out over the years. While my original focus was going to be solely on the 'scare factor' these games delivered, I realized games can take more than one approach to this. Some of these games utilize the more traditional 'jump-out-of-your-seat surprise' routine, others use the bizarre and unexplainable to mess with players' heads. Some are even almost wholly reliant on the atmosphere of the game's environments to convey the dark mood. In light of this, the list that follows is comprised of the top five games that I found to be the scariest, eeriest, or most haunting in nature.

#5 - Bioshock

This is a game that is more invested in delivering its narrative than it is scaring players. And what an awesome story it is. But the developers decided to have some fun with scaring the crap out of players just the same, at a few key moments in Bioshock. There are the generic situations wherein a Splicer will run around a corner and catch you off guard - the Houdini splicers are notorious for this, with their ability to teleport. But I found fighting Houdini splicers to be more tense than scary. The Spider splicers, on the other hand, are pretty creepy. They crawl on the ceiling of Fort Frolic, making a clink-clank noise with their hooks, and jabbering on about how they want to hold your Little Sister. Because of the multi-level layout of Fort Frolic and the fact that it's such an expansive area, you can't always see where these enemies are. A few of them go the extra mile and dress up in plaster, posing as statues until you turn your back.

The worst offender, though, is the Medical Pavilion. It's one of the first areas you explore in Bioshock, and is home to the crazed Dr. Steinman, who spends his days turning people into Picasso paintings. Watching him gouge a corpse before he introduces you to his other works is pretty disgusting. Meeting the other denizens of the Medical Pavilion will give you the heebie-jeebies. Most notably, a group of splicers shut the lights off and run circles around you. Another hides behind a casket, waiting to attack should you choose to approach it. Another medical member crawls around inside the morgue compartments, while one of his colleagues floods the Dentist practice with gas to temporarily blind you so that he can sneak up behind you, not attacking until you turn around and see his mutated face up close.

Though the game does contain some great moments to scare players, they are mostly limited to a few areas. Don't get me wrong - the points in question are very effective, and the crazed behavior of the splicers is in keeping with the overall theme of the game. But as a whole, Bioshock does not exude 'scary' like the rest of those on my list. With that said, on to number four!

#4 - Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4's setup is a great teaser of everything that will ultimately unfold. After a drive down a muddy, unpaved road deep in the forests of Spain, Leon is separated from his chauffeurs. From the sounds of things they have met an unfortunate fate, but Leon has to press onward to rescue the daughter of the President of the United States. He comes across a village of locals who are burning the corpse of one of the drivers, and the moment Leon steps past the fence line, they all swarm him, wielding sickles and hatchets. With limited ammunition, Leon seeks to barricade himself inside one of the ramshackle houses. As soon as he's blocked the door, the sound of a chainsaw can be heard as a man wearing a potato sack over his head makes Leon his number one target.

Few games start of as intense as Resident Evil 4. The survival-horror elements are retained throughout the rest of the game by limiting Leon's ammo supply at key points, and subsequently throwing seemingly insurmountable odds at him. This can be anything from a cabin where Plagas-infected locals spill in from every window on either floor, or trying to balance fighting an El Gigante whilst ensuring Ashley's safety. Aside from this tension, there are plenty of jump scares sprinkled throughout, from dodging the spear-tipped tail of Salazar's Verdugo to a flaming body suddenly erupting from behind a door.


Enemy designs ooze horror through plentiful variation. Sure, it's both bizarre and gross when a Plagas rips open the skull of one of the Ganados and begins to flail about its tentacle blade. But it's even more unsettling to deal with the borderline-invisible Novistadors that crawl around the castle sewers and puke acid all over Leon's face. Or the Garradors, who - though blind - will slowly walk about a room, waiting for Leon to make the slightest noise which will prompt them to charge, running their blades through his head. Or perhaps the creepiest of them all, the Regenerators, whose heavy, nasally breathing can be heard from a few rooms away, leaving players confused as to which door this nasty actually lies behind. Plus, Regenerators have multiple Plagas within their body that can only be pinpointed with a thermal scope attachment for the sniper rifle. And the time it takes to stop, zoom, fire, and reload cuts close to the time it takes the Regenerator to reach Leon once he's been spotted.

I would rate this game higher, but the longer you play Resident Evil 4, the more comfortable you get with it. It still maintains its identity, but the jump scares become less frequent and the tension amounts to more of an action-packed experience than a horrific one.

#3 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I know what you are probably thinking: 'how in the world can he rank Majora's Mask higher on the scary-scale than Resident Evil 4?' Well, it's a different kind of scary - frankly, I think the terms 'haunting' and 'eerie' are more appropriate when describing Majora's Mask. It's also much more consistent than the jump-out-and-get-you moments in Resident Evil 4.

Majora's Mask is the darkest of all the Zelda titles. It's also one of the most depressing and twisted games I've played in general, regardless of genre or date of release. The game presents you with a daunting task - stop the moon from falling and subsequently crushing all the inhabitants of Termina. Oh yeah, and you only have three days to do that, so get crackin' or everyone's going to be pummeled into the ground. As you meet each character and help them in both the main story and sidequests, you relate to them and begin to genuinely care about their individual stories. It's one thing that I've always found Zelda games to be great at. No one will be spared - not even young Romani, who will be abducted by aliens if Link is unable to defend the ranch. Even though the moon falling is the work of Skull Kid, I still felt like I would be guilty of not saving everyone if I failed to complete the game.

In Ocarina of Time, Link became friends with the sages and Shiek, all of whom proved strong in their own distinct ways. Though Link had to rescue each from a sort of slumber or imprisonment, they aided him in his quest to stop Ganondorf. In Majora's Mask, the heroes of Termina - Darmani the Goron and Maiku the Zora - both die. Each of them teaches Link a new song before passing on to the afterlife, and leave him with transformation masks. Link is essentially wearing the faces of a dead Goron and Zora, which is about as gross as it is disturbing.

From the ominous chanting in the Stone Tower Temple, to the bizarre twangs at the Great Bay Coast, to the downright stomach-churning sounds that carry across Ikana Valley, the soundtrack does more than its fair share to emphasize the haunting nature of Majora's Mask. It is a perfectly creepy marriage to the dark color palettes exhibited in the game's dungeons, and the designs of enemies like the monstrous fish Gyorg and the grim-reaper-inspired Gomess. The atmosphere of this game seriously creeped me out as a kid, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't still find it disturbing today. I mean, have you seen Link's Elegy of Emptiness statue?

(Fun fact: If you look at the mask on the cover of the game cartridge, official game guide, or even a Google image of it, Majora's gaze follows you no matter where you are standing.)

#2 - Limbo

Limbo is a curious case. It is largely a throwback to old school platformers, and relies heavily on puzzle mechanics which are clever and challenging. The game itself is not terribly long. What makes it so creepy is little more than the art style. Were it not for the classic horror black and white filter, enemies would appear as other humans much like the protagonist. Monsters would be visible from a distance, and players would know where to jump to avoid spike pits and bear traps.


But then, the game would lose all of its atmosphere. Frankly, the story is completely up to interpretation, not delivering any voice work or text boxes. Players are meant to believe there will be some sort of prize at the end of the road - the gray, darkening road. The ending is melancholy and open-ended, while the journey there is marked with grotesque insects and humanoid figures that seem hell bent on your destruction. Traps riddle the forest floor, and one flick of the joystick could mean the difference between staying afloat by aid of a box and drowning. Limbo utilizes the most simplistic approach to horror, and it works incredibly well.

#1 - Silent Hill 4: The Room

Where Silent Hill 4 surpasses the competition with flying colors is every unexplainable element therein. Giant two-faced baby monsters chasing you through corridors, tentacles rising up from the floor to grab your legs – it’s all so alien and bizarre that one can’t help but respond with instinct, running away at the sight of these creatures. The fact that you are only allotted the use of certain objects as weapons doesn’t help the situation either. I mean really, are you going to charge headlong at those two-faced baby monsters with a lead pipe? I don’t think so.

But the horrors are not limited to the different Silent Hill portals. Each time you return from your… ‘adventures’ (for lack of a better term), there’s something new and out-of-place in your apartment. It might be the upper half of a human torso sprouting out of the wall above your bed. It might be a bleeding bag in the fridge that emits sounds similar to a cat. It might even be a bunch of crying baby fetuses that have somehow manifested themselves inside of the walls. Even if you do your best to avoid these more obvious scare tactics, you might witness a disembodied head fall by your window. Or perhaps Robbie the Rabbit is staring you down through the hole to the neighbor’s apartment.

The game couples dark fantasy elements with an art style that performs a balancing act between gothic and industrial. The soundtrack often aims more for odd, inexplicable noises than actual music. All of this topped off with the fact that you are alone and trapped like a rat for the entire game perpetuates a sense of serious tension and anxiety. The fact that, more often than not, you have no idea what to make of things makes this the single scariest video game I have ever played.

Happy Halloween!

What makes a 'special edition' so special?

Special edition, collector's edition, and limited edition releases of video games are nothing new. They've been around for as long as companies have known they could make a few extra bucks by slapping on some new box art and including a few bonuses with the retail release. But these special edition releases weren't nearly as frequent ten (or even five) years ago as they are today. It seems like every major title has to provide this second option - or in some cases (like Halo), three flavors to choose from. Obviously the cost between standard and special editions is a major factor for gamers when they look into purchasing a game, but the contents can also be a dealbreaker. I certainly can't say that I'm speaking for the majority, but what I personally look for in these so-called special edition releases is, well, something different that makes the upsell seem worthwhile. The only criteria for the titles I'm going to cover is that they have to fit in the category of a special/collector's/limited edition, where the content comes packaged with the game for this special release, regardless of where the game is purchased. This means that any exclusive content promised by one store or another does not count, nor do re-releases that come packaged with an extra disc worth of DLC (ie. Game of the Year editions).

My copy of Majora's Mask is the collector's edition version, which was a promotional stint Nintendo put on for those who pre-ordered the game. Aside from the gold-colored cartridge and the holographic cover art, there's nothing to separate it from the standard game. And that's the sort of thing people expected from special edition releases of yesteryear - a little extra flair, perhaps, but the same game they could buy otherwise. I still think Majora's Mask is a phenomenal game, and I can use the gold cartridge for some bragging rights. But the content in today's special editions are usually divided into two categories - content for use in the game itself such as character costumes and weapons, or physical objects like posters and small statues.


However, I've found a lot of people tend to complain about the mini-statues included with games like Bioshock and the upcoming Batman: Arkham City. I have to agree with such sentiments - while they certainly look cool, they are likely going to sit on a shelf and gather dust. Those that include poseable parts are usually cheaply constructed and prone to break, and it's usually a better alternative to fork out a few bucks for a more sturdily-built action figure. In some cases, though, these statue-like items can serve a dual-purpose. In the case of Halo 3's Legendary edition, the Spartan Mk VI helmet (though not wearable) slid over the protective case that housed the game and the bonus material DVDs. Not to say that the Noble Team statue from the legendary edition of Halo: Reach isn't cool to look at, but Halo 3's helmet serves both aesthetic and practical purposes.

Focused more on physical bonuses, Bioshock 2's special edition release included three posters from Rapture, an artbook that detailed characters and locations from the game as well as those that were cut from the final product, the soundtrack to Bioshock 2 on a CD, and the soundtrack to the first Bioshock on a vinyl record. To top it off the box art featured a butterfly collage of handprints representative of Sofia Lamb's Rapture Family. As a huge fan of both Bioshock games, I feel this is the ultimate package 2K could have delivered to their fans. Even if you aren't as big a fan of Bioshock, there's still a nice mix of different inclusions to merit the price tag. Similarly, the recently-released Catherine had a deluxe edition that oozed the essence of what the game is all about - a pair of boxers, a t-shirt, a pillow case, and an artbook with the game's soundtrack, all packaged in a Stray Sheep pizza box.


Not all special editions have to include physical items, though they certainly should include more than two extra characters if they are going to cost an extra ten dollars (I'm looking at you, Marvel vs. Capcom 3). Going back to Halo 3, the majority of the bonus content for the Legendary release was on the included DVDs, which presented a great deal of information on the major characters, species, and events of the Halo universe. The collector's edition of Halo: Reach went a slightly different route by including a journal penned by Dr. Halsey and a number of files, photographs, and maps that served to elaborate on the events preceding the fall of Reach as well as to closer tie the game to the Halo novels. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots saw a limited edition release that included a bonus disc which served a similar purpose - present players with a digital encyclopedia that links together every event and character from the Metal Gear Solid storyline.

While there has been a constant increase in recent years in the number of games that see special edition releases, not every one of them receives as much praise as the next. It seems some companies are now listening to their consumers and including content that not only sets the special edition apart from the crowd, but also makes gamers feel like their money was well-spent. Personally, I'm a fan of such a motion. Obviously not all of them are going to change their tune to accommodate, but that's also a big part of the reason I seek out the few special editions that I do wish to splurge on - the more one-of-a-kind package it is, the more likely I am to purchase it.

2010 Year in Review: Video Games

In my opinion, 2010 started out as a strong year for hardcore gamers, but fizzled out during the second half of the year with a number of predictable/monotonous mainstream releases. There were, however, a number of titles announced this past year that are slated for 2011 release that I am very much looking forward to playing. Each of the games mentioned in brief here are titles that I both played for the first time and reviewed earlier this year, so you can check out the more full and in-depth reviews at you leisure.

Bioshock 2: The first title was a hard act to follow, but despite my anxiousness for the release of 2K's sequel, it succeeded tremendously in carrying on the story of Rapture and further exploring the city and ideals of Andrew Ryan. Narrating the events through the eyes of Subject Delta, one of the first Big Daddies, the storytelling feels much more fluid even if the plot itself feels slightly less original than in the original Bioshock. A few tweaks here and there to the game mechanics might not have seemed necessary at first glance, but the gameplay benefits greatly from these. Throw in an online multiplayer mode that is as enjoyable as it is strategic and you've got a phenomenal sequel to what is quite possibly the best title released for this generation's consoles. My rating: 9.5

DLC
- Protector Trials: 9.0
- Minerva's Den: 8.0


No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Working out some kinks in the game mechanics from the first installment, Suda 51 has returned Travis Touchdown to the heat of battle. This time around, Travis isn't in it to win Sylvia - he's climbing the ranks of world-renowned assassins to seek revenge. There's a ton of blood, but it comes across as surprisingly cohesive with the overall art stlye of the game, and the soundtrack is fantastic to boot. Despite a few bumps along the way, Desperate Struggle is a blast to play and one of the best action-adventure titles for the Wii. My rating: 9.25

Dynasty Warriors Gundam: A hack-and-slash fest with Bandai's popular mecha series skinned over everything, this title is surprisingly enjoyable though not particularly deep. The gameplay is incredibly repetitive, but each pilot/Gundam has their own unique attacks, strengths, and weaknesses. The original story is creative, though a bit cheesy, while the classic battles reenacted from various series do a better job of wrapping players up in the experience. Dynasty Warriors Gundam isn't by any means fantastic, but it's one of the better Gundam games released in recent years. My rating: 7.25

Hydro Thunder Hurricane: Not much has changed in the overall feel of Hydro Thunder since the original was released years ago, and that's great news for veteran fans and newcomers alike. The game's controls are intuitive and players can advance through higher difficulty levels. The biggest selling point in terms of replay value, however, are the number of various gameplay modes available, including gauntlets, ring challenges, championship races, and online multiplayer. My rating: 9.0

Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2: While the gameplay is fluid and responsive, the cutscenes in the story mode were cooked up in a quick and lazy manner. The difficulties in the story mode are incredibly unbalance, but nearly perfectly balanced in the duel and tournament modes. As with most fighting games, each character is granted his/her basic set of attacks, but there is enough variation throughout to keep things interesting. My rating: 7.75


Final Fantasy XIII: Easily the single best looking game I've ever seen, FFXIII manages to stack its gameplay and story high as well. The characters are an interesting group thrown together by circumstance, and while each player will have his/her favorite, every one of the characters (of both major and minor roles) plays an important part in the grand scheme of things. The paradigm shift system works flawlessly, though some character roles will be more important earlier in the game, and others more important later on. The game is incredibly long, but if players are patient and put the time into it, I think they'll find FFXIII to be a thoroughly enjoyable gaming experience. My rating: 9.5

Halo: Reach: Bungie's swan song to their most famous series is most full a package out of any of the Halo titles, and easily one of the best FPS games for this generation of consoles. Aside from a decent length campaign that pays homage in each level to it predecessors, gamers are given the online multiplayer that has made Halo so popular over the years, a more complete version of the firefight mode introduced in ODST, and nearly limitless options for creating maps in forge mode. The graphics are phenomenal, the soundtrack epic, and the voice acting top-notch. The level of customization in terms of the in-game SPARTANs and the various thumbstick/button layouts will cater to just about any player's personal preference. My rating: 9.25

DLC review: Bioshock 2 - Minerva's Den

The third and final bit of Bioshock 2 DLC has arrived and, as with the previous two releases, 2K has created a great experience full of everything that makes Bioshock 2 the unique game that it is. That said, Minerva’s Den didn’t feel as fleshed out of DLC as the Rapture Metro Pack or the Protector Trials and is, in my opinion, the weakest of the three.

Minerva’s Den opens up with an Alpha-series Big Daddy named Subject Sigma being denied entrance to Minerva’s Den, home of Rapture Central Computing, via a tunnel exploding. But as Sigma is a Big Daddy, moving about the ocean is quite simple and so he finds another entrance into the home of Rapture Central Computing, with the help and guidance of Brigid Tenenbaum and Charles Milton Porter. Porter, along with his colleague Reed Wahl, worked on The Thinker, a supercomputer that runs many of Rapture’s everyday needs. However, over time Wahl took control of The Thinker and subsequently all of Minerva’s Den, while Porter was banished from his own creation. Now Sigma must get control of The Thinker back out of Wahl’s grasp.

The single-player story that is Minerva’s Den plays out like a two to three-hour version of either Bioshock or Bioshock 2. The overall objective is ever-present, but players will have to traverse different sections of Minerva’s Den and complete various objectives before reaching Wahl and The Thinker. Along the way, players will find a handful of audio diaries, most of them pertaining exclusively to Porter and Wahl’s collaborative work, as well as the major weapons and plasmids found throughout the main game of Bioshock 2. While collecting each weapon doesn’t detract the narrative, it is a bit of an annoyance as players are only granted use of the drill and telekinesis plasmid at the start of Minerva’s Den and are then expected to take out some relatively challenging enemies (such as Spider and Brute Splicers) with this combination. Once players have tracked down more weapons and plasmids, however, the big challenge will be balancing weapon use and conserving ammo, as this isn’t nearly as plentiful in Minerva’s Den as in the rest of Rapture.

Two new additions to the Bioshock arsenal make their debut in Minerva’s Den. The Laser is a weapon carried by the newest Big Daddy model known as the Lancer. Once players have taken a Lancer down, they can loot his Laser for ammo cells, and can then fire the weapon with three ammo types – a standard laser beam, a thermal beam, and a charged ion blast. A new plasmid, Gravity Well, creates a small gravitational center which pulls objects and enemies towards itself for a brief time period. While it’s nice to see that 2K is as creative as ever, the Laser basically combines three ammo types from other weapons and attributes them to one convenient location that is ultimately a less powerful weapon. As entertaining as Gravity Well is to use on a handful of Splicers, it doesn’t prove particularly useful against the large numbers of enemies players face in gather sections, and is a plasmid better reserved for its primary inclusion – unlocking certain areas.

The design of Minerva’s Den is much darker and moody than many other areas of Rapture and often carries a feel much more akin to that of the original Bioshock than Bioshock 2. There are a number of areas that players can choose to travel to if they wish to explore more of Minerva’s Den, but these are not required by the main narrative. Some of these simply allow players to stock up on munitions and health packs, but others further explore the history of Minerva’s Den. Unfortunately, a few of the questions brought up by exploring these areas are never answered by the narrative’s conclusion.

Minerva’s Den is a nice addition to the overarching tale of Rapture, but is still very much self-contained. While players may find a few audio diaries by Andrew Ryan, the only character that makes an appearance both outside and inside Minerva’s Den is Tenenbaum, and the story of Sigma, Porter, and Wahl doesn’t extend past this DLC or play into the main events of Bioshock 2 in any way. While the story of Minerva’s Den doesn’t explain much of anything until (quite literally) the last fifteen minutes of the gameplay, the payoff is quite good and delivers a solid plot twist that keeps with Bioshock tradition. In the end, Minerva’s Den is easily the weakest of the three pieces of Bioshock 2 DLC, but is still a great addition to any fan’s collection.

My rating: 8 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

Bioshock 2 DLC update

Just a quick update this time, with a new trailer for the Bioshock 2 DLC "Minerva's Den". Never before have I been so creeped out by a computer.

"The market is patient, and we must be too"

Following hot on the heels of the release of 2K's Protector Trials DLC, more Bioshock-related news has arrived in a very big way. In the Protector Trials, among the various other unlockables, is a concept art gallery for an area known as Minerva's Den. This area was not included in the original disc of Bioshock 2, and will be released as narrative-driven DLC. Players assume control of a never-before-seen Big Daddy who is helping Tennenbaum to take out some VIP in Rapture's central computing area. This new Big Daddy looks uncannily similar to the statues seen late in the events of Bioshock 2's main story. Whatever the inevitable outcome of this new DLC, it's nice to see that 2K is wrapping up some loose ends from Bioshock 2, particularly in regards to Tennebaum.


Even bigger news is the announcement by Irrational Games of the 2012 release of Bioshock Infinite, which puts players in control of a Pinkerton agent named Booker DeWitt in the year 1912. DeWitt has infiltrated Columbia, a floating city in the sky, in order to rescue a woman named Elizabeth. It appears supernatural abilites similar to the plasmids will play a major role in gameplay. While Columbia carries a much brighter art style than the decaying undersea city of Rapture, footage from the teaser trailer suggests things are not all fine and dandy in Columbia. Propoganda posters and American flags are everywhere and Booker DeWitt finds himself being tossed around frequently by a mechanized being (who is an obvious nod to the Big Daddies of Rapture). A lot of what has been presented thus far of Bioshock Infinite looks strikingly different than that of the previous two Bioshock titles, but also wildly intruiging, as (in my opinion) the Bioshock series is easily one of the best for this generation of consoles.

Teaser trailer for Bioshock Infinite:

DLC review: Bioshock 2 Protector Trials

Following hot on the heels of Bioshock 2’s Rapture Metro Map Pack, 2K has released the Protector Trials, a series of single player challenges that require the player to protect a Little Sister from waves of splicers as she extracts ADAM from a corpse. There are six distinctly different levels to choose from, and each level has three challenges to complete, for a grand total of eighteen challenges. Here’s the catch: players are only granted use of a predetermined set of weapons, plasmids, and occasionally tonics to use on any given challenge. With a variety of different combinations the game allots the player, no two challenges will play out quite the same.

Each challenge is built off a preexisting area in the main single player game of Bioshock 2, though slightly retooled for the Protector Trials. None of the Protector Trial challenge areas will see as drastic a change as their multiplayer map counterparts, but elements of the environment are moved around for the sake of providing cover for both the player and the splicers, making trap placements more practical, and making vending machines and health stations more accessible. The Protector Trials maintain much of the main game’s eerie charm, as pieces from both original and licensed soundtrack start up over Rapture’s loudspeakers each time a trial is commenced.

While players are not granted any money at the start of a trial, they can rack up funds quickly by killing off enemies. Since looting bodies for ammo and money is no longer necessary, it makes the trials a lot more fast-paced and fluid. Also, the longer a Little Sister goes uninterrupted in removing ADAM from a corpse, the higher the ADAM reward a player receives.

As previously mentioned, there are three challenge styles for each area, designated by a number of stars for its degree of difficulty. These use the same layout, but change up the weapons and plasmids a player can use from the previous iteration of the same trial. For instance, the first trial on Atlantic Express Train Upkeep has players using the hack tool, machine gun, security command 2 plasmid, and handyman tonic, the second trial has players using the rivet gun, grenade launcher, spear gun, electro bolt plasmid, cyclone trap 2 plasmid, decoy 2 plasmid, and armored shell tonic, and the third trial has players using the drill, insect swarm plasmid, and armored shell, drill vampire, and drill power tonics. The types of ammo players are allowed to use is limited as well, with trap rivets and proximity mines in trial two. On occasion, a trial will make further restrictions on the player, such as denying them the ability to earn money to use at vending machines. However, these only come into play in the three star trials and there is always a tradeoff in these instances, such as a considerably larger EVE bar.

Technically the Protector Trials are tied into the overarching story of Bioshock as much as the multiplayer mode is. You play as another Alpha-series Big Daddy and are working along with Tenenbaum in order to extract as much ADAM from corpses around Rapture and slow the progress of Sofia Lamb’s Utopian project. In this way, the Protector Trials are essentially a side story to the main events of Bioshock 2. Aside from explaining where Tenenbaum disappeared to after her brief appearance at the start of the game, however, it’s kind of a weak attempt on 2K’s part to tie it into everything else. That said, this aspect has zero effect on gameplay, so it’s a very minor complaint at worst.

For 400 Microsoft points and $4.99 in the Playstation store, the Protector Trials is a fantastic deal, especially in comparison to what some other games charge solely for map packs or new weapons/characters. There is plenty of incentive for player to complete the challenges, as (aside from seven new achievements/trophies) players can unlock concept art galleries, Bioshock 2 trailers, and animatics for content that never made it into the final game. The Protector Trials are an interesting twist on the formula set forth by the gather sections of the main game and provide plenty of challenge for players, requiring them to be strategic in completing each trial.

My rating: 9 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

Xbox 360 review: Bioshock 2

Flashback to New Year’s Eve, 1958. It is a very short while before the midnight attacks at the Kashmir Restaurant, and Delta and his companion Little Sister, Eleanor Lamb, begin their rounds searching for ADAM. Eleanor, being a playful child, decides to run off ahead, but is cornered by Splicers. She screams for help, and Delta rushes to her rescue, making mince meat of all but one of the Splicers, who manages to throw a Hypnotize plasmid at Delta. Sofia Lamb then appears, reminding Delta that Eleanor is in fact her daughter and not his, despite what his conditioning has taught him. Sofia then instructs Delta to remove his helmet, put a pistol to his head, and pull the trigger. The last thing Delta witnesses is Eleanor screaming “DADDY!” before he blacks out. Then the ominous Bioshock 2 logo appears.

Thus is the beginning of 2K’s sequel to their 2007 smash-hit Bioshock. Players can now finally return to the dystopian city that Andrew Ryan built. The 1940s and 50s art style is still present, though much of the city has been reclaimed by the ocean. The levels are all new – no area has returned from the first game. Each of these new areas is largely a retooled version of a level from the first game (Fort Frolic has been altered to become Dionysus Park, Apollo Square has become Pauper’s Drop, and Hephaestus has become Persephone). However, these new areas are different enough that they don’t feel like a rehash, only as if there is something hauntingly familiar about them. And yes, the soundtrack follows a similar pattern, combining both Garry Schyman’s original compositions with songs of the time period, including Artie Shaw’s “Nightmare”, Todd Rollin’s “The Boogie Man”, and Eddy Duchin’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”.


Though Jack was technically tied to Rapture, he played the role of an outsider looking in. As Delta, you are a Big Daddy who – despite his free will – has lost everything and is left only with a desire to seek out his former Little Sister, Eleanor. As such, the story is less about discovering Rapture as a whole. Bioshock 2 begins with the presumption that you have played the first game and gets off the ground much more quickly than the first game. One of the largest focuses of Bioshock 2 is the Big Daddy-Little Sister relationship. As a liberated Big Daddy, Delta is both directly linked to this and removed from it, as he is no longer attached to his Little Sister.

Your guide this time around is Augustus Sinclair, a character who was only briefly mentioned in the first game. He is a businessman who wanted to capitalize on everything he could during Rapture’s heyday. Since the Civil War and Sofia Lamb’s takeover, Sinclair has been trying his best to survive. When he pairs up with Delta, he leaves the moral choice fork-in-the-road segments up to the player, as opposed to Atlas and Tenenbaum’s attempts to sway Jack in regards to the Little Sisters in the first game. While Delta’s choice to harvest or rescue the Little Sisters does affect the final outcome of the game, players are also responsible for determining the fates of three normal human characters as the story progresses.

This is a game that is just as blood-spattered and violent as the first. An M-rating is only fitting. And while the conflicting ideals of Ryan and Fontaine are not central to the story this time around, the material in Bioshock 2 is still a lot to stomach for anyone younger than 17 years old. 2K has weaved together a fantastic story and it will undoubtedly make evoke emotions from players. The entire mood of the game is incredibly melancholy and quite frankly depressing at times. As brilliant as the first game was, it simply cannot compare to the emotions conveyed in Bioshock 2.


With the first game, players were exposed to a human vs. human conflict between Ryan and Fontaine. Players were meant to determine for themselves which of the two characters was the lesser evil, if either was better off at all. In the sequel, who is good and who is evil is more heavily implied (though still not explicitly stated). By the end of the game (or perhaps only a few hours in if they are skeptical enough), players will be convinced that Sofia Lamb is desperate and insane.

With all that in mind, the story isn’t nearly as complex. True, much of the underlying politics between key characters is left unexposed until the last few levels of the game. In fact, Delta’s true identity isn’t even touched on in the slightest until roughly ten hours into the game. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, as it allows more time to focus on and develop the other characters. But the true identity of Delta will understandably not offer as great of a plot twist as the true identity of Jack did in the first game.

A large part of Bioshock’s story came from the sequences in which players were unable to interact with Jack, and the fact that any given cutscene was carried out from a first-person perspective. That is still the case in Bioshock 2, and the non-interactive sequences deal out some excellent shock value.

The side stories players can discover through audio diaries cover a much broader spectrum than in the first game, and offer some unusual perspectives on the game's events. Delta's story is the main focus of the game, and the conclusion of the game will likely spark some controversy among fans.

Though Bioshock 2 uses the same Unreal engine as its predecessor, there are many noticeable changes. The graphics have been updated, but don’t sacrifice the merging of real world with cartoon-style that was introduced in the first game. The AI has undergone drastic alterations and the game is both more challenging and more immersive because of this. Though Delta is able to fire his plasmids and weaponry at the same time, this increase in power is balanced by increasing the number of enemies he encounters at any given time. Hacking has been retooled and now uses a timed minigame involving a moving bar and various colored areas, as opposed to the previous pipe puzzle minigame. While it does move much more smoothly than the pipe game, this new style of hacking can leave players exposed to enemy attacks, as it plays out in real-time.


The plasmid powers available in Bioshock 2 aren’t much different from those in the first game, save for one notable exception in the last level. As players acquire more ADAM, however, they can upgrade the plasmids, which will in turn alter the way they work. For example, the Electro-shock plasmid will jump to multiple enemies when upgraded to the third and final level.

In Bioshock, players were encouraged to build up their ammo and EVE hypo reserves before engaging a Big Daddy. Considering players now control a Big Daddy, these particular fights aren’t quite as challenging or spectacular. True, the newest Big Daddy type, the Rumbler, will deal out more pain to players than the Bouncer or the Rosie. But the most impressive fights come from two events very closely knit with the main story. The first are the Big Sister fights, which occur directly after either harvesting or rescuing the last Little Sister in any given level. While a Big Sister’s health is comparable to that of a Big Daddy, she is significantly faster and more agile, often latching on to Delta’s helmet and punching him in the visor. The second challenging battle sequence arises from a Little Sister gather. Delta can adopt the Little Sisters associated with the other Big Daddies in order to have them extract ADAM from corpses around Rapture. When a gather sequence occurs, players will be met by an onslaught of Splicers until the Little Sister completes her extraction. As the game progresses, players can utilize trap rivets, hacked security bots, the cyclone trap plasmid combined with other plasmids, and miniature auto-turrets to fortify the radius around the Little Sister.


One of the largest selling points for the sequel is the inclusion of online multiplayer. Included are deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, known as Survival of the Fittest and Civil War respectively. Also included are Capture the Sister (a clever spin on the traditional capture the flag), ADAM Grab and Team ADAM Grab (both keep-away variants), Last Splicer Standing, and Turf War (where players compete for territorial control).

The multiplayer mode allows players to choose from a host of characters specifically designed for this new mode. Players can customize their plasmid and weapon loadout, as well as unlock gene tonics as they level up. The level-up system will allot points to a player even if they aren’t victorious in a round - they will just earn significantly less in experience points than a player on the winning team. The multiplayer also has a story mode woven into it, chronicling the events of the selectable characters during Rapture’s Civil War.


Overall, the multiplayer works very well. It feels similar to Team Fortress 2, unsurprisingly as both games use derivatives of the Havok gaming engine. Although players can utilize the Big Daddy suit during certain points in a round, it will allot the user greater damage resistance in exchange for use of their plasmids. As such, the Big Daddy still is a force to be reckoned with, but doesn’t feel overpowerful so long as the other players are smart when they attempt to take him down.

Bioshock 2 is a fitting sequel in every way. It can never replace the original, and it doesn’t try to. Instead it offers a new story from a new perspective and gives players a truly gratifying experience. Every improvement made in the sequel shines through brilliantly, while the mechanics that were left untouched flow just as fluidly as ever. I am glad that 2K pushed the game back from its original November 2009 release to February of 2010, as nearly everything was fine-tuned to perfection. Players can delve deeper into the mystery and horror that lurks in the halls of Rapture and experience some of the most solid gameplay available on this generation’s consoles.

My rating: 9.5 (out of 10)