Of course, the most important part of any home run:

Anyone will tell you that I’m a fan of baseball.  Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and the pre-juice Barry Bonds: these are names I know well and careers I greatly enjoyed following.  Thus, it seems like a no-brainer that when a baseball game came out that I would jump at the chance to play it … but that’s not exactly how this game came to be in my possession.  For you to truly understand, I have to take you back on a trip through time and space: The year is 1998 and the place is my parents’ lounge room.  There, a young Moose is putting in a cartridge into his N64 that would forever change his life and bring out the horrifying OCD side of his gaming: Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.  The moment I turned the console on and that baseball came flying at me, I was hooked.  I spent hours upon hours slogging through regular season mode, game after game to make my way to the World Series.  This game was heaven.  I played my way through the season mode 3 times; a painful exercise for even the most die-hard fan.  This was the best of times and it was the blurst of times.  The game made me so happy; however, it raised the bar to a level that (apparently) no other baseball game could live up to … until now.

A short while back the Armchair team went to an Xbox event held at the State Library in Melbourne with the express intent of making the building explode with irony.  Once there, Matt and I sat down to one of the few games that had an available console: The Bigs 2. I sat down, safe in the knowledge that Matt was only playing this game to humour me and because there were no other free games.  Then the strangest thing occurred: we got into it.  There was yelling; there was shouting; and most of all there was enjoyment.  But I was wise.  I had been burned before.  So I played it cool, unsure of whether or not this game was actually the real deal.  So when I finally acquired my own copy, with much trepidation, I sat down and prepared to let myself love again.

OK, so love is a strong word, but I opened myself up to the thought of holding someone other than Ken Griffey Jr in my arms.

Actually, now that I think about it, that wasn’t even close to being better.

Uhhh … on to the review: (more…)

We're buying our way to victory, Mr. Bubbles!

One of several things I was impressed with on my initial playthrough of BioShock 2 was that 2K hadn’t lined up any release day downloadable content.  DLC has become somewhat of a necessary evil for developers, but nothing irks me more than seeing “bonus” gameplay packs available before you’ve even managed to wrestle the shrink wrap off a brand new title.  That’s not bonus content, that’s active customer gouging, and far too many games are guilty of it.

Well 2K have tipped their hand today to announce their first DLC package for the new BioShock installment.  What’s on the way?  Here’s some press release for you:

The single and multiplayer experiences of BioShock 2 will be enhanced with downloadable content that will add more glimpses into the award-winning world of Rapture. Downloadable content will be made available soon, beginning with the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, available this March on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Games for Windows–LIVE for 400 Microsoft Points and from the PlayStation Network for $4.99. Future expansions into the world of BioShock 2 are slated to arrive over the coming months and will continue to expand on the stories of the denizens of Rapture.

Sinclair Solutions Test Pack contains a number of customization features that will allow players to further their character’s development in BioShock 2’s multiplayer modes and provide a deeper multiplayer experience. The pack includes:

- Rank increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
- New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
- 20 new trials*
- A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
- Five additional masks*
*Some items are only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher.

In the coming months, 2K Games will also be publishing downloadable extensions of the single player experience, providing new insight into the world of Rapture. These packages will include more narrative, new tools and new challenges that extend the lore and fiction of the failed Utopia under the sea.

So while the $5 price tag ain’t so bad, I really have to wonder: I’ve been playing the BioShock 2 multiplayer fairly constantly since I purchased it, and I’m only now tipping the edge of the currently capped level 40.  I mean the majority of us (excluding boosters of course, bless their hearts) have only just reached the level cap, is there really so much demand that it go higher already?  I haven’t even had time to feel superior to all those lowly level 36′ers yet.

What does concern me is that this, in theory, means that people who buy themselves the DLC will have a completely unfair advantage over all the vanilla retail players.  We won’t know exactly how the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack will effect the game’s balance until we find out the specifics of the upgrades, but this all seems a little stupid to me.  While they’re at it, they may as well package and sell the “BioShock 2 Multiplayer Anti-Freezing Patch” that allows you to play through more than two rounds without a console freeze.

Now there’s an unfair advantage I’d like to see.

Head on over to the 2K International site to check out the official PR.

Piggybacks are fine, Little Sister, just don't ask for a helicopter

The 2010 sequel season (sequelganza!) continues it’s unstoppable march with the release of 2K Games’ BioShock 2.  The highly-anticipated “Deco ‘n Daddy” shooter has been a long time in the making, suffering delays in 2009 and requiring no less than five game studios to bring to fruition.  Has the result proved to be worth the wait?  Or does the sequel fall prey to the high expectations carried over from the original?

It’s been almost three years since we last descended into Andrew Ryan’s Rapture, and from the moment you stumble to your feet in BioShock 2, you’ll feel like you never left.  In-game, however, it’s been ten years since the events of Jack Ryan’s return and Fontaine’s fall, events for which our new protagonist was, for all intensive purposes, stone dead.  Subject Delta is an early model “Protector” Big Daddy, who’s line was genetically bonded to a single Little Sister to increase the effectiveness of the pairing.  Delta’s Little Sister is Eleanor Lamb, daughter of Rapture’s new leader Sofia Lamb.  In the game’s prologue Sofia gains control over Delta and forces him to commit suicide, reclaiming Eleanor in the process.  Ten years later, Delta falls out of a Vita-Chamber and discovers that he’s regained his free will.

From here Delta must make his way back to a now teenage Eleanor and effect an escape from Rapture’s grasp.  Along they way you’ll meet both new and familiar faces, and discover a whole new side of Rapture in the process.

(more…)

No more needs to be said, really, I’m all preordered up and waiting for release day.  So this gorgeous looking cinematic trailer is just filling in the time:

Dystopian underwater hell-cities have never been so much fun!

It’s probably no surprise to most that Bioshock is included in our Top Games of the Decade. The creators, 2K Games,  managed to combine great gameplay, a menacing score and a high concept world into an epic gaming experience. It was a FPS that had an RPG story, with survival and puzzle elements. But most of all, it’s engaging plot was what kept us hooked.

It was probably the first time Ayn Rand was used as an inspiration for game storyline. Ryan, one of the many antagonists, believed in the intelligence and excellence of the individual, the stand alone genius, which should not be hampered by morals or laws imposed on them by a government. He created a city under the sea, Rapture, to bring together the brilliant minds that would thrive in an isolated utopia, as if Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was a reality in this alternate 1960. These great minds grew, bloomed and went wild, destroying their home with their madness and lack of control. There was obsessive-compulsive plastic surgeon that believed he was in direct contact with Aphrodite. A genetic scientist, indiscriminately creating the Little Sisters in an attempt to harvest what she needs to continue her work. The tragic artist, self obsessed and paranoid. And then Ryan himself, the glorious leader, challenged only by the uprising of the people, lead by ‘Atlas’ who will shrug as many times as possible to bring Rapture to it’s knees.

In my country, a Splice is an ice-cream ...

Along with an immersive storyline, Bioshock boasted a stunning art style for its environments, completely ruined. The city itself is never seen in it’s hey-day, instead Rapture is torn apart by rebellion, by faulty engineering, by madness. Even from the beginning, when you break the surface of the sea after your plane crashes and you see the lighthouse, it’s noticably damaged. Rapture’s slow decent is mirrored in it’s citzens; so many are scarred and sinister, destroying themselves from within with ADAM and constant body modification. The designers managed to create something both beautiful and ugly, with the Art Deco architecture evoking the power and wealth of the Modern Industrial movement and all the degredation of a society falling to ruin. Coupled with the architectural logic applied to a city built on the bottom of the ocean, it was great to play through. Almost distracting.

Another, more personal note, was the idea that 2K wanted people who hadn’t played an FPS before to play Bioshock. Of the three difficulty options available, the first was ‘Easy – for people who’ve never played an FPS’. Instant win! And although a lot of the game relies on your ability to shoot accurately – this is survivalist gameplay after all, you’re encouraged to conserve ammunition – it wasn’t the main objective.

Bioshock proved that a pithy, intellectual and mature plot still means something when constructing a game. It scored points with us because of it’s all encompassing storyline and it’s beautiful world, even with the blood and guts. And really, who doesn’t like a dystopian underwater world run by an Egoist madman?

Now, would you kindly stop reading this article and steel yourself for number three in the countdown?

The minature windshield prevents Splicer splatter

The fine folk from the Cult of Rapture have posted up a rather extensive article today that details the Big Daddy’s spear gun.  Why should you care?  Because it sounds so damn boss, that’s why.  Here’s just a little cut:

Finally, we’ve got an entirely new alternate ammo for BioShock 2: Rocket Spears. These are exactly what they sound like, except more awesome. They’re rocket-propelled spears, and when they attach to Splicers a short fuse ticks down before they explode for massive damage. Splicers of course freak out when they’ve got a Rocket Spear embedded in their bodies; they run around like their hair’s on fire, which it sort of is. The nice thing about this reaction is that they’ll run toward other Splicers for help, so the explosion will often set other Splicers on fire as well. This is, of course, awesome.

That, of course, is awesome.  So not only can you look forward to Delta harpooning enemy splicers to walls, but in the best of Australian vernacular you can also literally “get a rocket up ‘em”.  Now if only there were a Dog Spears.

Head on over to the Cult Of Rapture to check out the full article, including the concept art.  Oh, and how long has it been since you checked in with Mark Meltzer?  He misses you.

Remember kids, splice responsibly!

Getting a little bit depressed with the number of games pushed back to “Q1 2010″?  Well good news everyone, you can cross one ambiguous date off your list, as it was announced today that BioShock 2 has finally confirmed it’s release.

The big day? February 9, 2010.

Here’s a cut from the press release:

Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. Players step into the boots of the most iconic denizen of Rapture, the Big Daddy, as they travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and their own survival.

Multiplayer in BioShock 2 will provide a rich prequel experience that expands the origins of the BioShock fiction. Set during the fall of Rapture, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a premier provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city of Rapture that was first explored in the original BioShock. Players will need to use all the elements of the BioShock toolset to survive, as the full depth of the BioShock experience is refined and transformed into a unique multiplayer experience that can only be found in Rapture.

BioShock 2 is currently in development at 2K Marin in collaboration with 2K Australia, Digital Extremes and 2K China for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows® LIVE. BioShock 2 will be available worldwide on February 9, 2010. This title is not yet rated by the ESRB.

So in other words, Mark Meltzer has about five months to figure out where his daughter disappeared to.

While the big date is still a little ways off, we can only assume that (barring a major accident) there won’t be any further delays in the game’s release.  So now all we’ve got to do is wait out the time, and if you live where I live, hope that Australia isn’t banning it for being too aggressively underwater.

In the meantime, the Cult of Rapture has posted up the first in a series of articles showing off the game’s multiplayer characters.  The first is a welder by the name of Jacob Norris.  Take a look, and start counting the weeks!