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Bioshock 2 coming to Japan, courtesy of D3 Publisher

by David Hinkle { Nov 30th 2009 at 6:00PM }

Good news, Japan! D3 Publisher is localizing Bioshock 2 for you and, this time around, you won't have to wait that long to get your ADAM-soaked hands on it. Andriasang reports D3 Publisher will release the 2K Marin, et al.–developed sequel sometime in early 2010 -- presumably close to the February 9 US release date. We just hope the new Japanese ad campaign dials back the completely frightening a bit.

BioShock cosplay recreates Rapture at the Aquarium

by David Hinkle { Nov 23rd 2009 at 7:00PM }

Sometimes an idea is just so good, you can hardly believe you came up with it. That must be how Harrison Krix felt after creating the elaborate and awesome Big Daddy costume you see above -- not since BioShock released have we been so eager to heap praise on something. Well, Mr. Krix, we hope you suffocate on our affection, because taking your costume to the Georgia Aquarium for some underwater snapshots has to be the best idea ever.

If you're scratching your head, wondering just where you've seen these two before, let us help you: right here on our website. Krix's girlfriend (holding another of his creations in the pic above, the ADAM syringe) is quite the cosplayer, which initially got Krix into the game of making things from games. Take notes, gents! That's how you woo the ladies.

[Via Geekologie]

BioShock 2 Special Edition vinyl-y announced

by Randy Nelson { Nov 19th 2009 at 1:19PM }

Click to Big Daddy–size

If you find yourself enraptured by everything BioShock, you're really going to love this. 2K Games has disclosed details on the BioShock 2 Special Edition release, limited to one production run and set for retail on February 9 alongside the slightly-less-special edition we saw the cover art for on Tuesday.

If you're prepared to sink $99 into the set ($89 for PC) you'll be the proud (but poorer) owner of the game, a 164-page hardcover art book, three posters, the orchestral score on CD and the most special goodie accompanying this edition: the orchestral score on a vinyl 180g LP. You know ... a record. You know, big black disc DJs use? Yep, one of those.

This is great news for audiophiles and those who refuse to own a CD player because lasers are obviously some kind of witchcraft.

Gallery: BioShock 2

BioShock 2 cover is familiar, absolutely filthy

by Randy Nelson { Nov 17th 2009 at 6:00PM }

Not to be overshadowed by BioWare's latest effort to depict Mass Effect 2 in one epic cover, 2K Games has released the box art for BioShock 2 -- and it doesn't win any points for originality or cleanliness. Just like the first game's cover, it features Big Daddy (this time he's you!) and Little Sister (not you). Only now, everything's behind cracked, grimy glass and the logo's covered in barnacles. Eww.

You can lay your eyes on high-res versions of the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC covers for the sequel in the gallery below. You might want to put on some rubber gloves and grab a can of Scrubbing Bubbles before you click on 'em, though.

Gallery: BioShock 2 box art

[Thanks, Geoff]

Actions of BioShock protagonist debated by characters in sequel

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 6th 2009 at 4:00PM }

Considering the dichotomy of the moral decisions (see: good or evil) offered to the silent hero of the original BioShock, many have wondered how the upcoming undersea adventure, BioShock 2, would take his actions in the first installment into account. Without a save game import feature (ala Mass Effect 2), how could the sequel register the player's decisions in the original? The answer was recently revealed by Bioshock 2's creative director, Jordan Thomas: Ambiguity, my dear Watson.

Speaking to MTV, Thomas explained that, "the things that he did are being fiercely debated by the splicers, because we wanted to support any of the choices the player could have made in the first game." He later added, "It's become kind of a religious question; what he did at the end of BioShock 1." This plot device is probably for the best -- if the splicers in Bioshock 2 knew about our actions in the first game, all they'd debate about is why we spent ten hours wandering aimlessly around the city, desperately hunting for audio cassettes.

Hands-on: BioShock 2

by Randy Nelson { Oct 29th 2009 at 12:00PM }

Having already taken a brief tour of Rapture through the eyes of a Big Daddy a few months back, we were okay with the fact that BioShock 2 looked and seemed to play very much like the original game -- only this time encased in a huge pressurized diving suit. Now that we've played through a full area of the game, our initial assessment more or less holds up, but that's not to say there aren't several noteworthy -- and even surprising -- changes and additions to expect when the game arrives next spring.

Warning: We've done our best to keep what you're about to read as spoiler-free as possible, but the extremely sensitive should tread cautiously beyond this point.

Gallery: BioShock 2 (10-29-09)

Continued →

BioShock 2's 'Capture the Sister' mode isn't kidding around

by Randy Nelson { Oct 28th 2009 at 8:20PM }

The citizens of BioShock 2's undersea dystopia, Rapture, love them some ADAM -- especially when it's been freshly harvested by a Little Sister. It's with this in mind that Digital Extremes tweaked the tried-and-true Capture the Flag multiplayer contest to place one team in charge of abducting one of these adolescent creepsters while the other must lay their lives on the line to protect her.

As the above first look at the mode explains, the "attacking" side's goal is to return the girl to a Little Sister vent. The defenders -- well they defend, of course ... but one of them gets to be a Big Daddy. We'll have our hands-on impressions of BioShock 2's single and multiplayer modes tomorrow, so look for more details then.

Latest BioShock 2 trailer stomps around 'Siren Alley'

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 26th 2009 at 3:35PM }

If you diligently avoided last week's GameTrailers TV due to all the BioShock 2 spoilers, the trailer you see above can help provide you with some water-soaked gameplay -- sans all the direct information. We feel it's safe to tell you that 2K Games gave this clip the title "Siren Alley" because of an area in Rapture of the same name, a place that we never got to see the in the first game.

Even if you don't watch the video above, you should take one thing from it: The "worldwide embargo" gets lifted this Thursday and a flood of information on the game is sure to follow. If you're really trying to remain spoiler-free on BioShock 2, now may be a good time to go dark.

Gallery: BioShock 2

GameTrailers TV drowns us in BioShock 2 footage

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 23rd 2009 at 10:39AM }

Like all good things in life, there's a steep price to pay for watching last night's Bioshock 2–centric episode of GameTrailers TV (posted after the jump). That price is your everlasting soul.

Okay, all it actually costs you is exposure to a few spoilers for the game -- but isn't that just as bad? Remember that sense of wonder the first time you stepped foot into the murky waters of Rapture? Aren't you afraid you'll ruin whatever semblance of that emotion that might still appear in the sequel by filling your ... you're already watching it, aren't you? You're a fiend, you know that? A fiend.

Continued →

GTTV features BioShock 2 this week; reveals who's running Rapture

by David Hinkle { Oct 21st 2009 at 12:00AM }

Ever since Andrew Ryan decided to go out for that pack of smokes (our mom says he's coming back; just you wait!), there's been nobody to tend to the leaky pipes and roving packs of splicers in Rapture. Well, according to GameTrailers TV's Geoff Keighley, someone's finally decided to step in and assume the leadership role for BioShock 2, and we'll find out who on Thursday's episode.

In another tweet, Keighley promised plenty of "new single player info and footage" and even teased that the episode will also reveal new characters -- something we already knew was planned for the sequel. You can catch the special BioShock 2 episode this Thursday night, October 22 at 12:30 a.m. ET on Spike.

Batman: Arkham Asylum creator focused on quality over quantity, hasn't played BioShock

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 19th 2009 at 8:00PM }

In a lengthy post-mortem with Gamasutra this week, Rocksteady Studios creative director Sefton Hill spoke his mind on a mess of topics regarding this summer's surprise hit, Batman: Arkham Asylum. "There are too many games out there that deliver lots of average content," Hill said when asked about the relative "tightness" of Batman in comparison with other games. Personal inspiration for the game's design came from places like Zelda and Metroid, two game series he's been a fan of "for years," as well as Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness. And though Arkham's audio logs and "environment as a character" motif hearken back to 2007's BioShock, Hill claimed he's never played it. "It's on my list of games to get back into ... I can't say for me that was a big direct influence."

Truth be told, we're just scratching the surface of Gamasutra's thorough dissection of Batman -- a game we loved with all of our jaded, rancorous hearts -- so do yourself a favor and stroll through the entire five pages. Call it an afternoon treat! You deserve it, dearest Joystiq reader.

Gallery: Batman: Arkham Asylum

BioShock opens Rapture to Mac owners October 7

by David Hinkle { Sep 24th 2009 at 5:30PM }

Finally, two years after the original release of BioShock, Mac owners get a chance to see what all of the fuss has been about. Andrew Ryan opens the doors of Rapture again on October 7, inviting Mac gamers (yes, they exist ... somewhere) to spend $49.99's worth of ADAM (£34.99 in the UK, €39.95 throughout Europe) for entry into the aquatic kingdom full of genetic abominations and pipe-powered electronics. With a description like that, who could say no?

The port is being handled by London-based dev Feral Interactive. We spoke with Brad Gibson, director of Marketing/PR at Feral, who told us the port "does not use Cider," the current go-to portability technology to get Windows games running on Intel-based Macs. We've put some more questions in to Feral to see if BioShock is the first native Unreal Engine 3 game on the Mac platform.

DICE founder forms Antic Entertainment, unveils Junk: Battles

by David Hinkle { Sep 22nd 2009 at 5:29PM }

DICE founder Fredrik Liljegren has his sights set on free-to-play games, as he's revealed (via Gamasutra) his new studio, Antic Entertainment. He's joined by Digital Extremes alum Mark Mikulec and Jeff Evans at the London, Ontario-based studio, which features talent from a variety of titles such as Dark Sector, BioShock and DICE's Battlefield series.

In fact, the team's already got a title underway called Junk: Battles (Seriously? You named your game Junk?), an RTS hybrid designed to work in most major web browsers, where users create a ship and battle other users, gaining stats and ship parts as they progress. While the game is in its earliest stages, feel free to battle through all of the junk (sorry!) at its site here.

BioShock maestro making Dante's Inferno sound like Hell

by Randy Nelson { Sep 9th 2009 at 7:45PM }

We did a little background check on Garry Schyman, the guy EA has picked to write the score for Dante's Inferno. Yes, as the publisher brags, he did the music for BioShock. But it may be his earlier material that caught the ~~eye~~ ear of Visceral Games. We are, of course, referring to his work on the late-'80s sing-a-long sitcom Rags to Riches. Check it out and you'll know why he was tapped to create a soundtrack for Hell.

Schyman, whose Inferno score has already been recorded at London's famous Abbey Road Studios, was also the composer for the likes of Destroy All Humans! and -- most recently -- Resistance: Retribution. You'll be able to buy (but not copy!) his latest soundtrack in January.

How to build a Big Daddy costume, in many complicated steps

by JC Fletcher { Sep 9th 2009 at 5:44PM }

Eager to spend a few hundred hours toiling away on some heavy clothes that'll probably hurt like crazy when you wear them, and will definitely make you look like a grotesque monster? Yeah, okay, we are too. This BioShock Big Daddy costume built by master game prop fabricator Harrison Krix is just that great.

Krix thoughtfully provided step-by-step instructions so you can attempt to fabricate your own Big Daddy. It's mostly made from an insulation-foam and cardboard skeleton, covered with expanding foam, with one of those domes from a ceiling-mounted security camera for the head and custom-molded resin details. And then there's ... the articulated cardboard-and-PVC animatronic hand.

Okay, maybe the fact that he's shown how he did this doesn't necessarily mean we can do it.

[Via Sidequesting; Thanks, Dali!]