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Bioshock


HotChops
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Yeah, exactly. The original Bioshock might have a similar cover superficially, but the Big Daddy was a completely original character and is iconic as fuck. They could've just as easily used Songbird for the cover of Infinite, or even this guy

 

Bioshock-infinite-20100906-120734.jpg

 

and it would've been much better. But as it stands, it actually kinda feels like they made a conscious effort to have shitty box art when they had plenty of better alternatives without straying too far from the norm.

Edited by FLD
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I'll give you giant, but armored humaniods are not exactly uncommon. :P

 

Assuming what could have been going through whoever's head, I'd guess they wanted to focus on Booker because the last two BioShock games had a silent protagonist. This time around your character has a mouth and uses it to interact with the other characters rather than stricktly with his firearms and/or powers.

 

Still, I really couldn't care enough now. I forgot Booker's name, and Googling the title I came to this article which I think covers this well. Even if we get a revised cover, we're going to put it on our shevles and focus on the actual game.

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Comparison to COD don't really help matters, considering that's part of the point folks are making. "Everything else is shit" is a terrible reason to have something else that could be oh so much better look shit too. They also point out Elizabeth is missing too, which..errm..well...not a great look to be going with of late. And beyond the bit of zepplin in the top corner no Columbia either. It's kinda telling in the quality of the cover when Bioshock 2, a game considered to be a fiar bit of a sub-par sequel, only had issues with the cover becuase people reckoned the Big Daddy looked like Bomberman. The cover is meant to be the window into what the game is about, and in this case it looks like genric as fuck FPS, or a studio that hasn't given much of a shit about the cover which starts to make you wonder what other parts they didn't give too much of a shit about. And those aren't really thoughts that they should be inspiring about now. Bioshock is the anti-generic FPS, the cover is something that should reflect that rather than embracing the tropes it's generally against.

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In other news...

http://irrationalgam...h-we-hired-one/

 

I'm quite sure we all remember her since she knocked it out of the part with her cosplay. Now IR hired her and such.

Edit: Also, you get another wiff of the cover...

Edited by MaliciousH
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It's nice to see that people care about a cover but when you're saying stuff like...

The cover is meant to be the window into what the game is about, and in this case it looks like genric as fuck FPS, or a studio that hasn't given much of a shit about the cover which starts to make you wonder what other parts they didn't give too much of a shit about.

You really need to remember the phrase 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. Could be that they just don't give a shit about the cover because it's the product that speaks for itself.

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The phrase "don't judge a book by it's cover" starts and ends life as a phrase, no one actually uses it as a philosophy. There would be no need for covers if people didn't use them to judge. The cover is therefore generally tweaked to suit the content inside. Such as the "boring" Skyrim cover in the style of an olde bound and embossed book. Not caring much about the cover is much like turning up wearing a shell suit with grass stains all over it. Not a great impression of what is potentially inside. You dispell this negative impression by generally putting in just an iota extra effort beforehand.

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Maybe for people who know nothing else about the game, and yeah obviously if I'm just browsing in a store I'm going to glance right over that game because the cover's so boring and character-less, but it's not like you're going to not buy a game that you're otherwise interested because it has a bad cover.

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But then you might as well dismiss films based on the poster. There are a myriad other ways to get an idea about a game. Hell, even the marketing campaign will tell you more than the cover. There comes a point where you make a judgement call as to how you perceive the product. Does the cover contradict what you know about the game or does it confirm some negative impressions? I'm OK with expressing distaste, but this is going a little overboard.

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Yeah

, that won't lead to disappointment at all :P And the cover does contradict what I know of the product, though a large part of what I know of the product comes from previous titles which by the developers accounts the new game mainly has in relation to it is the name and developer and a general feel. It's hardly like a keeping the same name and developer, and same mostly everything, and having a shooter-orientated cover hasn't actually meant the game itself is now more shooter-orientated before now. I'm someone who has frequently said I "try before I buy", how much stock do you think I put in gaming marketing?

 

I'm still hopeful of Infinite, quite looking forward to it. Doesn't mean I can't voice concern over what a shitty cover can imply. Where exactly does your line of distaste end so I can make sure not to overstep it next time?

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You seem to think I am endorsing marketing. I am not. I am merely pointing out that both covers and marketing can hold as little value as the other. Casting aspersions on a developer because of it, is what I deem excessive, especially since you already have a decent impression of the game anyway.

 

Obviously, I'm not saying you can't voice your opinion. I am only offering another perspective on it.

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So the box art is exactly as it looks then :P

 

Which kinda sucks, would be nice to have a marketing box art and then a flipside of a nicely done one like Resistance 3. (of course you can always buy the collectors edition which I'm sure Irrational wouldn't mind). Still, over three months away so I'm sure plenty time to have further plans announced.

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There was no doubt as to what the boxart's intention was.

 

As for further plans, I guess it's late enough that this seems the only option?

The thing we’re sure about is that we’re going to be releasing a whole set of alternate covers that you can download and print. We’re going to be working with the community to see what they’re interested in.
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Community has already been busy making alternate cover art before the official one was even revealed. It's nice to have a properly made one on the reverse than something printed off at the library on a sheet of paper and hacked down to fit a DVD case (since it's not quite the full A4). I'm kinda curious as to why it's not a common feature on most covers already. Double sided printed is actually surprisingly cheap, and I would imagine even more so if you're printing off a few million copies and not just a couple hundred.

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I don't get how making a bland-ass cover is supposed to increase sales. You know what that cover screams to me? "Generic Manshooter". So why would I buy that when I could buy Call of Duty instead? That cover isn't something that's going to make people pick it up to look at the back because it looks interesting, it's going to make it fade into the background so people don't even see it.

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Agreed.

 

The interview explained it well enough. We're in a different mindset, we see it from a completely different perspective and therefore the cover is "generic" for a game that will have an outstanding world and mythos. It's not that it's competing against Call of Duty, but it's making itself familiar to that type of consumer.

 

After all, if this frat guy only buys three games a year, Call of Duty is already taking one slot. Now it's a competition between your game and another. Those type of consumers are like how we might've been decades ago when resources were slim and without the vast pages of the Internet. People do still look at the back of a game case to read what a game is about if gaming isn't that big of a deal. They don't want to blow that $60 on something that's a bit sketchy to them, but if it's like "so-and-so," but a little more grander, then you can get a sale.

 

It would be like selling Dishonored because it's similar to Assassin's Creed. Not entirely obviously, but to those "dudes," you're an assassin with blades and tools going off seeking truth by slitting throats.

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