[Rictor]

The March issue of Game Informer has a cover story on Bioshock. As all good fanboys should know, Bioshock is the "spiritual successor" to System Shock, being developed by Irrational Games (of System Shock 2, Tribes:Vengance and Freedom Force fame).

Here are the details, as revealed by those who bought the magazine (or me, after having read though the scans).

- Core gameplay centered on player choice and customization
- Game takes place in the early 60s
- Game takes place in an underwater utopia ravaged by infighting.
- Themes are those of idealism, human achievement and how it all went so horribly, terrbily wrong.
- Dev's main goal is total immersion in the story
- Officially the first game I know of to mention anything as serious and intellectual as Ayn Rand. Props.
- you wake up in the ocean surrounded by debris and your first goal is survival
- something about creatures in the ocean discovered by scientists
- "We're creating a world for to be in. What you do is up to you, and you have to live with your choices."
- One of your skills is agility and it makes you run faster
- most upgrades will affect weapons
- you can create weapons and items
- you can hack stuff by being an engineer
- A walkthrough is useless - you take the game where you want it to go (Sounds really open ended)
- bioShock holds many mysteries
- Xbox 360 and PC - O N L Y
- Presence of genetically modified monkies in the game is as of yet unknown.


Scans:

http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock19ld.jpg
http://img371.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock29ke.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock37yc.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock49au.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock51gy.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock64up.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock76pp.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock80ef.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock90js.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock107tm.jpg

[Turnsky]

just to note, Irrational games is an australian company 

[Ransom]

I was just wondering what was happening with this. Sounds awesome, though apparently it's not coming out until late 2007.

[Rictor]

Huh? Where did you read that. The article mentions the game being about a year off, which means late 2006, early 2007, and IGN also features Bioshock in the "Most Anticipated Games of 2006". Here's hoping..

[Ransom]

Game Rankings, I think. That was a while ago, though. If it's coming earlier that's more good news.

EDIT: Checked with Google, looks like most sites are saying early 2007.

[ZylonBane]

just to note, Irrational games is an australian company

No it isn't. Irrational is a Boston company with a Canberra branch office.

[Turnsky]

just to note, Irrational games is an australian company

No it isn't. Irrational is a Boston company with a Canberra branch office.

i stand corrected, then, either way, they have australian members, that hasta count for something, don't it?

[Mefustae]

Wait, wait, wait... a game on the Xbox360 with an immersive, seemingly intelligent story that's not part of a franchise?! Well, it's certainly a gamble... 

Seriously though, it does sound intruiging, although I just hope making it for both PC and X360 doesn't impact too greatly on the game. I think we all know how great games can be utterly bastardised for console-play.

[phatosealpha]

All I can say is please god, please, don't let what happened to DX:IW happen to this one.

[Ace]

^ ^

Seconded.

IW looked *so* promising in the initial previews...

But you could just tell closer to release that it had been crapified.

[Deepblue]

I was going to post this earlier, but didn't want to be called a marketing tool again.

[Turnsky]

i can quite possibly see this herald a return of -good- single player First-person gaming.
(notice i didn't say "First person shooter"? that's because this would be a thinking person's type of game, i reckon)

[IPAndrews]

Maybe it's the influence of Half Life 2 on me but... I want this to be fantastic... I'm quietly expecting it to suck.

[CP5670]

Looks very interesting. This is the first time I've heard of this game. Although after the DXIW fiasco, I am not going to get my hopes up this far from the game's release.

[Turnsky]

at least it's not ionstorm austin working on it, Irrational have a reasonably good track record thus far, no matter what, it'll be different to say the least.

[Mefustae]

Indeed, System Shock 2, Tribes:Vengance and Freedom Force were all very, very respectable, irrespective of their commercial success [Vengeance tanked if I remember correctly].

[Cyker]

Tribes was good but it was nowhere near as good as Tribes and Tribes 2 in multiplayer.

I too am hoping it will be awesome, but am quietly worried it'll suck...

My only hope is that Irrational were very close to Looking Glass, and that they'll be able to pull off the game in that classic style.

I'm just sad we're probably never going to see a SystemShock 3 (Or if we do, it'll be utter ****e), because SS2 really ended on a cliff-hanger!

[aldo_14]

Interesting that they seem to have changed the setting; IIRC it was originally set in a WW2 Nazi lab that had been reopened in more modern times before 'going wrong'; one of the pieces of concept art shown a sort of mutated soldier monster carrying an MP40.

[Andreas]

^ ^

Seconded.

IW looked *so* promising in the initial previews...

But you could just tell closer to release that it had been crapified.

I was very much looking forward to BioShock, but now that it is also coming out for X-Box 360, well...

Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but the last new game I truly enjoyed was Vietcong, and that was what, three years ago? Doom 3 and Vietcong 2 were quite big dissappointments; VC2 mainly for being so damn short, while D3 was  nothing more than an overlenghty techdemo. *Goes back to playing System Shock 1*

[RangerKarl]

I thought the original plot was based in an abandoned Nazi lab? Guess they tanked that one...