Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Eurogamer editor Tom “Tom Bramwell” Bramwell has been delving into Bioshock 2, and – following a trip to 2K Marin – he’s been kind enough to unload some of his head-meat into our blog. Read on for hot diggity.

Hello, Role-Playing Shooters! Remember BioShock? They’re making another one. Seeing as I’m a bit of a regular in Rapture, Jim asked me if I’d be willing to write something about it on my next trip to the surface, and I said I’d be delighted. Either that or I got drunk and offered. I can’t remember, and it doesn’t matter.
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There’s new BioShock 2 details – a new multiplayer mode called Capture The Sister. The latest trailer reveals this mode to be a peculiar version of capture the flag, where the flag is a struggling demonic-eyed little girl, fought over by the crazed mutants and giant robots of Rapture. Which is… something tabloid newspapers wouldn’t understand. Get her to one of the escape holes and you score a point for your team.

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2K Games have released another trailer, via CVG, for Bioshock 2, this time narrated by a lady who is, presumably, the person who appears in a clever twist/cutscene about three-quarters of the way through the game. Or Shodan Under The Sea? Hmm, perhaps, but I guess it’s all a matter of philosophy, as we’ll no doubt find out soon. Anyway, go watch the action – for it is actiony – in the video-bathysphere below.
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This morning we behold the multiplayer footage of Bioshock 2, in which people are augmented splicers in the submerged environs of Rapture. These splicers get cracking killing each other with physics and deployable turrets, which all looks rather entertaining. But… what’s that? There’s a use for the research camera? And someone gets to be the Big Daddy? A Tank round for genetically-spliced deathmatch? Intriguing. We’ll have more on Bioshock 2 rather soon.
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It’s going to be a quieter Christmas than we were expecting. A bundle of big-name games have announced in the last few days that they’ll no longer be bulging Santa’s sack, but instead offering themselves in the colder months of 2010. This year your Christmas tree will not be towering over 2K games BioShock 2, Mafia II, nor Max Payne 3. Indeed they’re not alone. A smattering of console-only titles have also slipped, as well as Activision’s Singularity. What’s a jolly-bellied man to do this holiday season? Deliver Modern Warfare 2 an awful lot, it seems.

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So Take 2 Interactive (2K Games) finally got around to discussing their end of financial year stuff, and as well as a load of money stuff being discussed, more relevant news about release dates emerged. Bioshock 2 will hit on October 30th in Europe, and November 3rd in the US. It also has a new teaser site. Woo. Mafia II meanwhile has been delayed until at least October 31st, and could be any time between then and April 30th 2010. Borderlands is still scheduled for a “fourth quarter” release, and Max Payne 3 is due in Winter 2009.

And that sounds like a hell of a line up.

When a bunch of us scruffy journos wrote our Bioshock 2 previews a few weeks back, this is the bulk of what we based it upon: a nine-minute scripted walkthrough, accompanied by an enlightening commentary from Creative Director Jordan Thomas. Included: Big Sister action, the Little Sister adoption mechanic, and horribly messing up splicers’ faces with your drill-arm. Make your own judgements and crazy theories about who or what’s really pulling Rapture’s strings below. And for the love of Roy Orbison don’t drag this thread into yet more tedious mouthing off about how Bioshock 1 disappointed you. Look not to the past but to the future, friends!
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As well as a lady in a Big Daddy costume, it seems the forthcoming BioShock sequel will also feature multiplayer. Crivens! But will this new mode be the Counter-Strike to BioShock’s Half-Life, or as inappropriately abstract as the infamous Deus Ex multiplayer patch? Of the just-released details, two facts stand out as super-fun: 1) we’ll finally get to visit pre-fall Rapture 2) this mode’s being handled by Digital Extremes, co-developer of UT and UT2003/4. Oh, you’re listening now, aren’t you?
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BioShock 2 fever has spread across the internets today, and we’ve made our own feverish contribution. (There’s really nowhere else to go with that – “disease”, “germs”, “snotty rags of ideas” – nothing positive comes of running with the metaphor.) There’s our speculation post after watching the game running, and there’s our interview with 2K Marin developers. Below you’ll find all eighteen of the brand new screenshots of the game, including a couple with the Big Daddy HUD in place. Click on them for fullsize versions to adorn your walls.

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Making a rare guest appearance on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Eurogamer’s Editor bossman Tom “Tom Bramwell” Bramwell was recently visiting 2K Marin, the developers behind BioShock 2, and interviewed lead environment designer Hogarth De La Plante and senior producer Melissa Miller to find out some more details about what we can expect from the enormously anticipated sequel. They discuss the role the ocean is going to play in the game, how Rapture has changed in the ten years since the original game, why defence is going to play as big a part as offence this time, and what it’s going to be like to be a Big Daddy.

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