Feeling charitable yet you still want to receive something tangible for your tax write-off'able donation? Then how about bidding on a Ken Levine autographed copy of BioShock (the Xbox 360 version, of course) which is currently on the auction block over at eBay by the folks at Game Giving. A non-profit organization who donates all auction proceeds to various charities that help children worldwide. You have nine days to bid on this piece of Ken Levine, BioShock, 2K Games history, so get to it! Heck, if BioShock doesn't float your boat (no pun intended), then we advise focusing your bidding efforts on Game Giving's Rock Band bundle. Just stay far, far away from Eragon ...Posts with tag bioshock
Bid on Ken Levine autographed copy of BioShock
Feeling charitable yet you still want to receive something tangible for your tax write-off'able donation? Then how about bidding on a Ken Levine autographed copy of BioShock (the Xbox 360 version, of course) which is currently on the auction block over at eBay by the folks at Game Giving. A non-profit organization who donates all auction proceeds to various charities that help children worldwide. You have nine days to bid on this piece of Ken Levine, BioShock, 2K Games history, so get to it! Heck, if BioShock doesn't float your boat (no pun intended), then we advise focusing your bidding efforts on Game Giving's Rock Band bundle. Just stay far, far away from Eragon ...Gore Verbinski to direct Bioshock movie
Get creative with BioShock vending MP3 downloads
Major Nelson and Elizabeth from 2K Games just partnered up to offer a few short, sweet and completely downloadable audio clips from everybody's favorite Big Daddy adventure, BioShock. The audio clips are all master tracks taken from Rapture's quirky odd talking vending machines. As an added bonus, once you play but one of these audio clips, we guarantee that you'll be instantly taken back to your Rapture gaming days. Ahhh ... Rapture ...Now, you may be asking what the heck you want with a few random (yet very yummy) audio samples from BioShock's vending machines. Well, if you were a creative fellow, you wouldn't be asking that now would you? Use them as a ringtone, apply them as your computer's error message, mix some samples into a full fledged song or just keep looping a clip while you sleep at night. Be creative and share how you'll be using your newly downloaded BioShock vending clips.
Ken Levine does best to clear the storytelling air
As is becoming more and more common these days, a developer heard about the internet debacle that their comments or actions sparked, AND responded with relative quickness. This time it's BioShock's very own Ken Levine and his comments about dumbing down the stories in video games to be understandable for the lowest common denominator. His response was posted over at VE3D, and in it he goes deeper into his side comment about the medium of games having potential through player choice.
In fact he can say it better than us, so we'll just let him do it: "(Players) can, IF THEY CHOOSE, go deeper. That's where in BioShock all the other storytelling devices kick in: the diaries, the public service announcements, the posters, the thousands of little scenes in the world of Rapture that tell the story of what happened there. But I like to assume there's going to be some part of the audience that doesn't care about that, and those people can opt out of it. But for the people who do care, they can choose to opt in and get a fairly complex story (and a VERY complex story relative to other console first person shooters)."
The second part of Ken's response can be found after the break.
Continue reading Ken Levine does best to clear the storytelling air
Bioshock creator: Plot has to be f****** stupid
We all know that Bioshock was a widely praised game. We all know that much of that praise was directed at its storytelling and narrative. So then when news like this comes around it makes us look at things a little differently. In an interview with PC Zone, Ken Levine the project lead on Bioshock, was quoted as saying: "If you want people to follow your plot, it has to be really f****** stupid." "What are you doing in Bioshock?" continued Levine, "Act 1: Find the submarine and get out. But, the sub goes down. So, Act 2: You go find and kill Ryan".
He's certainly correct (duh), noting that Bioshock's original story plan involved at least three civil wars and spanned across a total of 70 years (possible Bioshock 2 hints?). Despite lambasting the necessary dumbing down, Levine does praise the gaming medium's ability to immerse the player to whatever degree they choose via player exploration and discovery. With Ken involved, we're not at all worried about 2K Marin, and we have high hopes for whatever new IP he's working on next.
Take 2: Bioshock MMO "potential opportunity"
Well it's to be expected that when an IP becomes successful it begins to be exploited, but it sure seemed to happen fast with Bioshock. After the game's release and subsequent success, rumors whirled about a sequel, and mobile rights were even purchased, but Take 2 appears to have even larger plans for the new franchise. An entry on MTV Multiplayer details Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick, speaking at the 2008 Smid Cap Conference giving an explanation for why Take 2 is turning down EA's offer to purchase the company for $26 a share.
To do this he details the company's past projects, present assets, and future potentials. That's where the above image came from. We already know that the mobile rights have been sold, and there have been Bioshock movie rumors before too. Well it seems the MMO arena may be the next space targeted by Take 2 for 1950's dystopian invasion. How about it readers, would you be interested in a Bioshock MMO?
Ken Levine will be involved with BioShock 2
We briefly mentioned this during our recap of the Take Two earnings call last night, but we wanted to echo the story so BioShock fans can sleep easy. At the tail-end of the Take Two earnings call last night Chairman Strauss Zelnick clarified questions we had regarding the BioShock sequel that was announced during the 2K investors call earlier in the day. When discussing the upcoming sequel Zelnick assured listeners that BioShock series creator Ken Levine, "will be working on BioShock 2."While we hope this means Ken will lend his vision to the 2K Marin team in hopes of creating yet another successful foray into the franchise, who knows if it means Ken will just be in Australia on a LOST landmark bus tour. So readers we ask, how important is Ken Levine's involvement in a sequel to BioShock?
[via Joystiq]
BioShock 2 announced, drops Q4 2009
After BioShock was met with critical and commercial success the prospect of a sequel seemed to be a foregone conclusion and today 2K Games finally admitted that the title is in the works. The surprising news is that 2K Boston, formally Irrational Games, will not be at the helm of BioShock 2's development, rather the job has been tasked to 2K Marin, who are reportedly staffed with former Irrational Games members. No involvement from Ken Levine was mentioned during the announcement.
The info dropped from an investor relations report 2K released today. With talks of an impending buyout on the horizon for parent company Take Two, the timing of this announcement couldn't be better. While the average gamer doesn't care about the business side of the industry, it will be interesting to see how Take Two's stock spikes based on the announcement. Either way, gamers can expect to take-out another group of Big Daddies in the last months of 2009 - so start lining up.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Via, Joystiq]
Gorgeous but totally unofficial BioShock 2 art
[Via CVG]
BioShock's Big Daddy just wants to have fun
While trolling the 4chan image boards the team at Bits Bytes Pixels Sprites stumbled upon this a gorgeous wallpaper depicting the Big Daddy and Little Sister having, as our own Dustin would say, "good times."
Ripped from the narrative of the award-winning BioShock, the Big Daddy and Little Sister are central characters in the great underwater city of Rapture and have inspired everything from fan art to developer discussions on the importance of simple stories in games. This beautiful piece deserves to be added to your desktop, so would you kindly download it.
Sunday Deals: H3, BioShock, Lost Planet and more
This week, Best Buy has two decent offers, one being that you can get a free $10 gift card with the purchase of Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and the other being $10 off Call of Duty 4. Heading North to our Canadian Best Buy friends, not only can you grab Kameo for $15, but they're also offering BioShock for free with the purchase of an Xbox 360. And remember, Xbox 360 prices in Canada recently dropped (Pro: $349, Elite: $449 and Arcade: $279), so that's a very juicy offer. Next up, Circuit City. They've heavily discounted Lost Planet to $20, cut the price of Conflict: DO to $40 and have taken 20% off the price of BlackSite, Kane & Lynch, Turok, Halo 3 and BioShock dropping their price to $48 each. Finally, this week at Target stores, they're selling PGR4 for $30, Scene It? for $50 and The Orange Box or NFS: ProStreet for a cool $40.
That's all the deals we could spot this week, but feel free to share with your fellow fanboys any other offers you spot while out and about this week. Happy shopping and stay safe.
Bioshock to see mobile phone release
Who even thought that there were rights for Bioshock on mobile phones, let alone rights worth purchasing? The rights for a story-driven, atmosphere-heavy, first-person-shooter on a screen smaller than your palm don't really seem worth it. Yet the company IG Fun will be bringing Bioshock to mobile phones, having just purchased the global rights from 2K. Nothing else about the game itself was announced, but the IG Fun CEO, Sean Malatesta, did say that "We're trying to do great things and BioShock on mobile promises to offer a whole new gaming experience and unmatched excitement amongst mobile gamers the world over." Whether or not that marketing-speak will end up coming true remains to be seen, but we'd better not see this IP run into the ground.
2K jumps on Unreal Engine 3 train for unnamed titles
Today Epic announced that Take Two Interactive's publishing label 2K Games will be using Unreal Engine 3 to power upcoming and unannounced titles currently in development. Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, told Gamesindustry.biz, "We are excited about continuing our relationship with 2K based on our past success with the company." Rein, who was referring to the success of the Unreal powered BioShock, wasn't the only happy camper in this tale of adoption. "2K had a very positive experience working with Epic's Unreal Engine 3 since it enables games to perform exceptionally well on both console and the PC," said 2K president Christoph Hartmann. Look at that, Unreal adopted by another company. Love the engine, but at this rate General Electric is going to buy a license to start making home appliances. Unreal is taking over the world and when used properly the results are outstanding.
BioShock flick is a go... no
Early last month Joystiq reported the rumor that an unnamed Hollywood studio was in talks with Take Two Interactive to secure the rights to a film based on the best selling 2007 title BioShock.While its been quiet since the rumor surfaced, an article on The Cult Scene, a gaming blog on Variety's website, claims that even more studios have shown an interest in creating a film based on the game. "You'd be hard pressed to find a production company, studio, or agency with at least one videogame savvy employee that isn't interested in Bioshock," blogger Ben Fritz says, "Take Two has been bombarded with requests from producers and studios interested in obtaining the rights [to the game]." While we love BioShock, we're not too keen on sending it to die on the silver screen with other games like Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros. and BloodRayne. Besides didn't they already made a Big Daddy flick?
BioShock scores 12 AIAS award nominations
With BioShock nothing but a sweet, sweet memory to most gamers, it's easy to forget that the industry is still piling awards on top of it. Well, nominations in this case. Nominations from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences to be specific. The AIAS has nominated BioShock for twelve Interactive Achievement Awards this year, more than any other game this year or apparently any other year. So, if you haven't played it, you really should, lest your friends start calling you out for the philistine you are. As for other 360 exclusives, Mass Effect garnered 4 nods, including console game of the year and role playing game of the year. Halo 3 nabbed two nominations, one for outstanding achievement in online play and one for action game of the year.
The IAA's will be broadcast by both GameSpot and ComCast on their video-on-demand services and will again be hosted by Jay Mohr.
[Via Joystiq]
