Bioshock

[CorgiShinobi]

Are you surprised that cover won? They announced the winner right after the contest ended.

I did not know when the contest ended, let alone remembering about the contest after voting so long ago.

 

Besides, it changed in appearance from what we were originally shown too.

 

Anyway, lil' chart posted on Facebook.

 

[deanb]

How do you measure "miles of code". Height, or word length. Either way you can make it vary considerably.

 

Compared to the metrics provided in Mass Effect thread, these are somewhat lame and irrelevant. (And the soda thing not exactly something to be proud of)

[CorgiShinobi]

The Mass Effect one was game stats involving player interaction and choices, sorta like the stats for The Walking Dead.

 

This is tame because it's just telling us what went into the game as far as time and energy. The first two (script and spoken words) impresses me because, thinking back to all the different previews, there is content to the world of Infinite. The rest is typical, "Hey, human beings made a video game."

[deanb]

Well according to Amazon their script length is only 1/3 longer than the average novel.

 

Just seems to be something weird to brag about. It took a long time to make, our power consumption could probably be more efficient, we drink way too much pop, and don't know how to measure code properly. Their marketing dept might want to hold back a little bit, they're getting silly.

 

In other news, it unlocks for me in a bit over 19hrs. I'm kinda on the low-end of specs at the moment, but I'll see how it runs might give a bit of a streaming session if there's interest. At the very least expect a couple of (heavily spoilered) views in here in the next day or two.

[CorgiShinobi]

All there is to novels are words, so that's kinda "apples to oranges." Now if you find the average script length of video games, then we could see how significant it could be to be both longer than a theatrical film and novel. I imagine a few games like L.A. Noire hold the same achievement.

 

And Duke Nukem Forever? C'mon, you know that had a lot more problems than just "14 years" in what we're suppose to call "development?" Even efficient power consumption is consumption, you don't know if any one individual drank too much soda as it is a combined total of all employees, code may not always be Arial 12 point, but you can always make the point that modern video games require astounding lengths of code to function.

 

And maybe this was suppose to be a little silly? You could, perhaps, say that it's a little...

 

Irrational?

[deanb]

The main point being practically none of these are useful metrics for anything. Games that have taken as long, if not longer, have been shit. Energy and pop consumption are hardly things to be gloating about, and yes there's a lot of code in modern games, a fair chunk in pre-built libraries, and it's not measured in miles. Lots of code could be a case of lots of things in the game, or could be a large case of unoptimised code. Once again it tells us nothing.

 

The Amazon thing was more for a bit of extra information, since 20K extra isn't saying much if you don't know the size you're adding to. And yes it would be much more useful to compare with other games than novels.

 

It's a badly thought out infographic for infographics sake, and given it has nothing positive to say on the game, leaves on the neutral or negative. The miles of code thing is likely to remain a jovial mocking point for years to come.

[CorgiShinobi]

Gloating? It's an infograph, not an achievements list. I think I would judge them more harshly if they told me how many kilos of cocaine they did than some employees drinking a few cans of soda at work.

 

How long is too long, and to what degree does length then always equate to shit? If a game is rushed, i.e. Survival Instinct (six months), then you could assume it will be bad. If a game has gone through three different studios, each starting the development phase over, then you could assume it will be bad. Delaying a game for a few months longer to make sure what you want launched to the masses is the vision you had for the entire project?

 

Let others play it and weigh it in their hands.

 

And any studio, publisher, or journalist who takes the time to mock Irrational on an infograph "for years to come" must not have anything worth saying if that's all.

[Waldorf and Statler]

Yeah I gotta agree with Atomsk on that last part. In fact the lines of code part wasn't even that funny and I haven't seen much mocking if at all. I didn't even consider it as such until you mentioned it. It seems like nice little tidbits to get people to have the game on their heads even further so they go crazy with anticipation.

 

Like a girl at a club touching your pee-pee with her ass and you look at her like "you wanna dance?" and she's all "Like WUT-EVAH I was only going to get a drink"

[Mr. GOH!]

The reviews that have dropped so far have been universally great, aside from a couple of contrarian or 'I don't get it" reviews. I pulled the trigger on an amazon pre-order for the $30 Take Two buxx and XCOM.

 

If anyone still needs XCOM, let me know.

[deanb]

Gloating? It's an infograph, not an achievements list. I think I would judge them more harshly if they told me how many kilos of cocaine they did than some employees drinking a few cans of soda at work.

 

40,000 isn't a few cans. And to what purpose is the infograph if not to go "look how big this all is, it's even longer than a book and the trip to the capital"? There's no "too long" or "too short", that's pretty much my point, none of these are metrics useful for anything.

 

Depends if Infinite is a perfect pristine game and those "miles of code" don't contain any issues if it's something used as a jab for years to come. A recent example is you've seen the discussion about Fez coming to PC right?

 

@WaS: There's many other ways, such as trailers, interviews, featurettes, etc to cover a game than a pre-release infographic.

[Waldorf and Statler]

They've done the other ways as well this one didn't harm ANYBODY it's just nice little snickerdoodles of info. I read it, I was all "that's interesting can't wait to play it" and I moved on. Mission accomplished by them it got me thinking of the game a bit more.

[deanb]

I'm not saying it's harming anyone. Just that it's pointless at best.

[Mr. GOH!]

The Bioshock Infograph ad fluff makes Dean grumpy. Duly noted. 

[deanb]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-25-you-can-unlock-bioshock-infinites-ultra-hard-1999-mode-without-completing-the-game

 

You can unlock the 1999 mode without an initial regular playthrough if you so wish. Details in the article.

[Mr. GOH!]

Wonder if this works on PC. More 1999 would be altering the .ini file. 

[TheMightyEthan]

1999 would be installing from a disc and then having to dick around with the game files for 6 hours because the game doesn't like your specific hardware setup for some reason, and you can't just download a driver update to fix it.

[CorgiShinobi]

Yep, reviews have been universally "great" to "excellent" so far. As a precaution though, I suggest no one scroll down to any of the reviews' respective comments section as some are taking it upon themselves to tell us this game's version of "Snape killed Dumbledore."

 

I scrolled down just a little bit and the second most recent comment was an endgame spoiler. Given what I already know about the game's mechanics and world, it seemed likely to be true. Still, I think this'll be a game where it's the journey/experience of getting to the end that will matter more than a twist.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Atomsk88

[Hot Heart]

Elizabeth was The Dark Tower the whole time.

[Mercurial]

And then John was zombie.

[Waldorf and Statler]

I wish I could say "the twist is the game sucks" but that's an M Night Shyamalan joke.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Fuck it. Pre-ordered.

[Mister Jack]

http://d-rodders.tumblr.com/post/46250691613/the-state-of-game-reviews

 

I want to punch faces every time I see some douchebag whining about how no game should be given a 10 because that somehow implies flawlessness.  Fuck you.

[Waldorf and Statler]

But a 10 should only be given to the perfect game: Tetris.

[deanb]

So, thoughts so far, 3/4 hours in.

 

The opening

 

I think the start is nice to have a very heavy nod to the start of the original Bioschok, lighthouse and all. But I think in doing so it does take away a lot of the magic in what could have been its own very strong start. The first trailer was quite good in this regard, start with the underwater stuff of "oh Rapture" and a couple seconds in it's clear its a new thing. Though obviously a major difference in that it's not post-new year massacre so nice to see it all quite active, and nice that continues through the rest of the game, lets you just relax a little. I can't see the game being as macabre as the first.

 

 

Elizabeth

 

Fine so far, a few little issues here and there with her reactions in being quite happy to escape, then fleeing upon the first battle, then almost immediately being fine. Her face has gotten unrounded from the image of facial progression linked earlier. As far as escort NPC goes she reacts well to the world (refusing to go in male toilets). Also kinda nice to have her throw cash and things my way, I might have used up lockpicks a bit too quick mind. In fact..

 

Show restraint with lockpicks, even if you get the extra 5 from pre-order.

 

The rest

It's Bioshock in the sky, down the to plasmids, random tapes, eating food, vending machines(same VA too), guns. Just name changes on these things instead. The rails is the main major addition, along with Elizabeth. Also no hacking so far, not sure if it'll be in ever actually.

 

edit:

Bugs

Yeah their miles of code contains a few odd bugs here n there, nothing majorly game breaking though one is an annoyance. First is a visual bug, when bodies disappear after being attacked with Murder of Crows, the blood spatter on them remains where the corpse once was. The other is that some users, myself included, aren't receiving any steam achievements. I had disabled Steam Cloud already, not sure if that's a cause or something I'll be glad to have removed later if it turns out the Steamworks implementation (thier last game was GFWL, so they're a bit new to it) isn't fully up to scratch and saves go vamoosh. 

So yeah as a precaution I'd maybe disable Steam Cloud.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Only played about 2.5 hours thus far, but I'm enjoying it. Far too soon to come to any real conclusion, and I doubt I will until the end of the game. Still, it's fun.