By Alec Meer on May 17th, 2011 at 10:27 pm.
Good news, everyone. I’d given up absolutely all hope of this ever happening, and yet it has. The final DLC for Bioshock 2, Minerva’s Den, was a smart vignette full of nods to System Shock and the history of computing, not to mention being a welcome opportunity to approach the fascinating, doomed society of Rapture from a perspective other than its increasingly fantastical main narrative. This standalone tale of a calculating rogue AI seemed tailor-made for PC gamers… only PC gamers never got it. So it’s with fairly delighted surprise that we discover it’s finally, finally due out on PC almost a year after its console version.
May 31 and purchased via BS2′s in-game Games For Windows Live thinger for 800 MS Points. Hang on, that’s like $10 isn’t it? Seems pretty steep given we’ve had to wait so damned long. And that you can easily buy a retail copy of BS2 for less than that (it’s £13 on Steam if you don’t want to look far). Oh, DLC gods – why must you be so cruel to us?
Still, better this than never getting it. Minerva’s Den is a fascinating slice of Rapture – and perhaps even the last ever, given Bioshock: Infinite has moved on to sky-pastures new. For more on Minerva’s Den, I’d encourage you to read the Babbage-tastic Making Of blog post by lead designer Steve Gaynor, which went up today. And while we wait a few days for the May 31 release, here’s a trailer from the console version:
17/05/2011 at 22:31 Dominic White says:
Yeah, I got the main game for a fraction of the DLC price. And Microsoft REALLY don’t like dropping prices on GFWL. A pity.
17/05/2011 at 22:32 Lewie Procter says:
2,100 point cards are usually available for £15, so that’s about £5.70.
More if you buy points direct from Microsoft.
17/05/2011 at 22:39 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Do you have a handy affiliate link I could click to purchase said points?
17/05/2011 at 22:55 Lewie Procter says:
Just posted some on SavyGamer.
17/05/2011 at 22:35 D3xter says:
Turtles.
17/05/2011 at 22:36 goatmonkey says:
Might more interested if it was cheaper don’t have a 360 so a points card is not all that much use sadly
17/05/2011 at 22:38 Daniel Rivas says:
Do those not work with GFW live? How silly.
17/05/2011 at 22:45 Shadow Aspect says:
@ Daniel Riveras
Yes, the cards work. Your ‘Xbox/GFW Live’ account saves the points all the same. I presume goatmonkey doesn’t want to have paid-for points left on his account that aren’t spent.
17/05/2011 at 22:51 goatmonkey says:
yeah my point is there is very little I want all those points for except this
17/05/2011 at 22:55 Daniel Rivas says:
Oh, I see.
18/05/2011 at 01:55 Rii says:
“yeah my point is there is very little I want all those points for except this”
And that’s one of the reasons they use points in the first place, so that you’ll have points in your account that you’ve paid for and haven’t used, thus inexorably drawing you back again and again…
Yeah, Microsoft are cunts.
18/05/2011 at 05:39 whydidyoumakemeregister says:
I thought MS started taking points or cash a few months ago? I know I’ve seen flat prices for stuff on the Xbox Live Marketplace recently.
18/05/2011 at 07:14 Rii says:
Oh. Well there goes my righteous anger. From what hence shall my life derive meaning?
17/05/2011 at 22:36 Adriaan says:
Babbage-tastic is my new favourite adjective.
17/05/2011 at 22:38 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Fantastic news! I’d been waiting for this to appear for a long, long time. I bought Bioshock 2 only in anticipation of this, in fact.
17/05/2011 at 22:56 Olivaw says:
This would be fantastic except I would have to purchase Bioshock 2 and then purchase this and then I would never end up playing Bioshock 2 because really, who cares about that game.
Oh well.
18/05/2011 at 00:14 Zenicetus says:
Same here. I enjoyed the first Bioshock, but nothing about #2 sounded interesting to me. It’s $20 USD on Steam now, and that plus the DLC is a little too steep just for the DLC. I’ll wait for the next Steam sale that makes the combo more attractive.
18/05/2011 at 00:46 Ridnarhtim says:
Shame you missed the fantastic Steam sale recently, then. It’s still a fantastic game, even though it’s not as varied / innovative as the first one was.
18/05/2011 at 01:52 Rii says:
Your loss; Bioshock 2 is a much better game than its predecessor.
18/05/2011 at 02:50 Thants says:
Agreed. It may have been a bit unnecessary from a story perspective but they made that part work and they improved pretty much every part of the gameplay.
18/05/2011 at 17:35 Yosharian says:
Just thought I’d chime in and say I too enjoyed Bioshock 2 more than the original. Principally because the gameplay was MUCH better.
Edit: still not gonna buy this crappy DLC though
17/05/2011 at 23:04 Paul says:
I really want to buy this.
I really do not want to deal with GFWL.
sigh.
17/05/2011 at 23:07 Eric says:
About f’ing time. I actually bought a copy of the 360 game before they announced the PC version, sold it after they did, and then considered re-buying it on 360 when it never actually showed up. Now I’ll finally be able to play it where I actually want to.
17/05/2011 at 23:08 NR says:
Obligatory Futurama reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1cap6yETA
17/05/2011 at 23:15 airtekh says:
I recently finished Bioshock 2 and I really enjoyed it. I might check this out at some point.
17/05/2011 at 23:16 Metonymy says:
You know I loved Bioshock 1 and 2, and I’m glad they did well, but they were terrible FPS games. There were so many little things to manage that weren’t fun or interesting, and many of the challenging parts were just annoying surprises. Easy, easy, easy, easy, wtf…that killed me in one hit.
It would have been better if the entire game was harder, and the whole ammo system was discarded. Most of it was redundant and annoying.
17/05/2011 at 23:44 magnus says:
‘but they were terrible FPS games.’ You what? Ah, I’m to tired to even faceplam at that!
17/05/2011 at 23:51 Xocrates says:
@magnus: To be fair, the shooty mechanics of the original were fairly lackluster. Though I quite liked the ones in 2.
18/05/2011 at 02:54 Thants says:
Actually, one of the things I liked in 2 was that you did mostly know when the hard parts are going to happen. The big wave of enemies happens when you start harvesting a body, so you have time to prepare.
18/05/2011 at 16:54 Jad says:
The shooter mechanics in Bioshock 1 were awful. Interesting world and unique premise, yes, but the actual combat gameplay was frustrating, lacked feedback, and was generally broken. It had nothing on the tight controls of, say, a Valve game. Never played Bioshock 2 because 1 left such a bad taste in my mouth, I probably should give it a shot though, as everyone says the combat is improved.
17/05/2011 at 23:17 suibhne says:
I finished and uninstalled Bioshock 2 several months ago. The ridiculous delay lost this particular customer, at least.
17/05/2011 at 23:19 Jimbo says:
Nah, you’re alright.
17/05/2011 at 23:45 westyfield says:
Re: the alt-text – just stick a screenshot from the 360 up, it’s not like there’s any difference.
*Ducks and covers*
17/05/2011 at 23:55 Koozer says:
Bought it for £3 in a Steam sale, played for a couple of hours, realised I didn’t play Bioshock for the shooting, never loaded again. Does the plot get better?
18/05/2011 at 00:00 Xocrates says:
The ending is borderline brilliant, I found it to be the best example of how videogames can provide a meaningful experience in a way no other medium can (though YMMV).
That said, the first 2 thirds are essentially a rethread of the original but with better level design and combat mechanics and overall less interesting characters.
18/05/2011 at 02:01 Rii says:
Sofia Lamb > Andrew Ryan
And Ryan himself is a more interesting character in BS2 than he was in BS1 anyway.
And of course Eleanor Lamb > *
18/05/2011 at 02:10 Xocrates says:
I really did like what they did with Andrew Ryan in two. It makes his appearance in 1 feel like a saturday morning cartoon villain in comparison.
18/05/2011 at 00:08 ziusudra says:
Associating System shock and Bioshock always makes me cringe. Looking glass please come back…
18/05/2011 at 00:14 Defenestrated says:
HOT SCOOPS
18/05/2011 at 00:44 Ridnarhtim says:
After buying the game for £3.50, there is no way I am paying £13 for some DLC =P
18/05/2011 at 00:50 MadTinkerer says:
STEAM.
STEAM.
I BOUGHT THE GAME ON STEAM, LET ME BUY THE DLC ON STEAM. IT’S NOT HARD TO FIGURE OUT, PEOPLE.
Seriously: what is the problem with some publishers not doing the frickin’ math on this? I’m really beginning to think that the average employee of all game publishing companies really are at least 10 or so IQ points lower than the average employee of all game development studios.
18/05/2011 at 01:01 StingingVelvet says:
I would assume that when you make the game a GFWL game there are certain agreements about selling the DLC through GFWL. Since 2K have switched to Steamworks on newer titles I would be shocked if they withheld a Steam release when they could have had one.
18/05/2011 at 06:20 Lars Westergren says:
Only for a limited time I hope? Fallout 3 DLC showed up on Steam eventually. I want this, but I’m not buying this through GFW. I think it will go the way of Plays For Sure eventually, and will be retired with just as much respect to customers.
Edit: Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be free on the PC? Not that I can’t afford it, but… seems like a risky PR move.
18/05/2011 at 11:15 MadTinkerer says:
I think it’s one of the other DLCs that’s going to be free? I could be wrong.
Still: I don’t mind paying for Minerva’s Den… on STEAM.
18/05/2011 at 00:59 Bungle says:
They don’t take credit cards? I’d have to buy an Xbox Live points card first to buy this??? I guess the Steam monopoly will continue then.
18/05/2011 at 01:57 Rii says:
I’m interested, but not for >$10 via Godawful.
18/05/2011 at 02:34 MythArcana says:
I have no idea what this is…and after looking at the video, I still have no idea what this is. I’ll go back to what I was doing now.
18/05/2011 at 04:29 msarge says:
Every time I heard about this DLC, including this time, I kept thinking it had something to do with that fantastic Half-Life 2 Mod Minerva.
But it didn’t.
18/05/2011 at 13:52 phuzz says:
Nope, that would be Portal 2, I always get confused about that too.
(CargoCult, the maker of Minerva got hired by Valve)
18/05/2011 at 07:24 terry says:
Finally! Watching the 2k boards will they/won’t they drip feed thread was incredibly frustrating.
18/05/2011 at 08:12 Edgar the Peaceful says:
I’d rather buy a poster of that beautiful owl design.
18/05/2011 at 11:15 drewski says:
So…GOTY edition for Christmas, £15? Cool.