Eddie Inzauto of TheGameReviews writes: "I often ponder why we play certain games and not others. More specifically, I question which elements of each game are the most important to the overall experience and my personal enjoyment of it. With BioShock 2, a game that is not presented with a unique interface or radically different way of playing, a marginal hybrid of a first-person shooter, I find that the joy of playing it comes far less from how the I actively influence the game world than from what I passively take away from that world. It is more about exploration than achievement, but could it survive on exploration alone?"
One of the most popular video game franchises of all time is set to receive a Netflix film adaptation, according to an announcement on Tuesday afternoon.
Gee...can't wait to see how many things they change and stray away from, oh don't forget the miscast actors
I have such high hopes because the first game is so near and dear to me. That being said, I'm sure they will mess it up. I'm hoping it's adult rated, and violent. I want to see a Big Daddy put that drill to good use :P
They're great at butchering stuff but there have also been some gems and surprises.
I never in my life thought I'd like a series based on League of Legends but it was pretty great.
Maybe just maybe they'll do Bioshock justice.
Priority checklist
- Pander to POC
- Pander to woman
- Pander to LGBTQ
- Story
In that order
Damn! It sure sucks when white men aren't the sole focus of everything! Why can't these fringe groups be kept on the fringes like the good ole days?!? /s
Netflix did well with Dare Devil and the Punisher and I hear the Witcher is pretty good I know when I had Netflix at the time Stranger Things was also good. But Bioshock I love the franchise Bioshock Infinite is my favorite game I would pay the $21 Canadian just to check out Bioshock. Normally I would never renew my Netflix after they did their price hike but Bioshock would be worth it.
When firing on all cinders, Netflix do produce some brilliant stuff so I am not feeling pessimistic at all here. If Netflix deliver to their potential then this could be incredible given the quality of the source material. Personally, I am quite excited.
Agreed, Netflix originals etc are fantastic in general, it's rare I don't like something they do.
Certainly not feeling negative with Netflix doing bioshock quite the opposite infact.
Bu bu bu bu but what about Cowboy Beebop though? That was a little miss opportunity. Just a little nervous that Bioshock could turn to crap 💩 like that show. If they do a Horizon Zero Dawn show, I hope they don’t screw that up as well. I know a few good actresses that could play Aloy like Jon Snow’s girlfriend from Game of Thrones, and his wife in real life. Definitely see Aloy in her.
Netflix does a lot of great things, recently finished the first season of Arcane and it was brilliant.
Arkane was so damn good.
I just hope they keep up the quality with later releases.
I'm not even a LoL player.
I’m sure they will, I don’t play the games either, I love the fact that I didn’t need to play them to enjoy it.
Arcane was insanely good imo, I was hooked almost all the way. Im not sure of this but i think Netflix didnt have much to do with the production of the show? More like they just bought the rights to have it exclusively on there?
Some of their original shows are really good so im quite hopeful this might turn out to be a good show. Lets hope they wont F it up.
Love Bioshock but I'll prepare myself for the likelihood this will be both crap and a pale imitation of the source material. That covers most video game adaptations and Netflix films.
I meant Netflix films in general, there are some good ones but most are average at best in my experience. Castlevania is good but I didn't like The Witcher, although it is successful.
Not sure if there are any live action video game film adaptations on Netflix as yet but they don't have a great track record.
@ Nacho
For movies, I think it’s very difficult to cram he narrative from a 10+ hour game into 2 hours. I think that’s why series are much better suited for video game adaptations. Seems we have a bunch coming up, so we’ll see how well it plays out.
The best games are able to create a never-before-seen setting and weave a completely engaging story into its DNA. One series beats almost all others out for its environmental storytelling and narrative: BioShock.
IMO Infinite is better than 2... The only thing I remember from 2 is playing as a little sister. It felt too much like Bioshock (which wasn't bad). Infinite was the right stepping stone.
Infinite was a huge step back. It played like a generic fps because it was dumbed down to be an fps and it's not at all the gameplay evolution Bioshock needed. It was a mindless shooter where story and it's world building took a backseat to repetitive shooting galleries against dumb AI while making you look for health in trash cans cause they removed mechanics that worked in favor for a more action oriented gameplay.
I think people are remembering Infinite all wrong.
It's story is a mess and it's world isn't as fleshed out as Rapture was in the first Bio.
@Inverno
"It was a mindless shooter where story and it's world building took a backseat to repetitive shooting galleries"
Sounds more applicable to Bioshock 2, tbh. B2 has wave-based gameplay where Subject Delta casually goes through large hordes of splicers to protect Little Sisters. C'mon. I still wouldn't call any of the Bioshocks mindless shooters though.
If you want to criticize the lack of the weapon wheel and the replacement of certain mechanics in Infinite in favour of increased mobility (e.g. addition of the sky-hook), fair enough, but the story and world-building of 2 are less memorable, noteworthy and interesting than Infinite by a huge margin. Most people don't even remember much beyond the basic premise of 2 (including any of the characters) because it felt so unnecessary. It's not even close.
"It's story is a mess and it's world isn't as fleshed out as Rapture was in the first Bio." Needing to use Bioshock 1 to criticize Infinite instead of 2 is an admission that 2's story is the weakest.
@Inverno
I remember it being very imaginative and a breath of fresh air, while still being familiar. The last hour or two was big on shooting.
Infinite was the most boring and repetitive in terms of gameplay. It lost the suspenseful atmosphere of the first 2
Am I reading that backwards or are you really shocked that people like infinite more than 2?
Just wanna make sure I have it right because you're literally the first person I've seen say that 2 is better.
I understand 2 is more of the same but I much prefer more of the same than going backwards in terms of gameplay. It wasn't the step in the right direction. But thats just my opinion, I'm not surprised at all. Just to me I much rather the first 2. However what they had planned for Infinite originally sounded very interesting and it sucks we won't ever see it
Imo 2 is tied with 1 as my favorite Bioshock. The gameplay is the natural evolution of the first, with more freedom to experiment. The story and locales are more intimate and less grandiose than you would see in a Ken Levine story. I love the atmospheric break of the underwater sections and never understood the hate for them. All 3 games have pacing issues but imo 2’s are less severe. The level design has a lot of ex-Looking Glass alumnis and is generally more open ended.
The endings are more tailored to your moral choices than the other games.
Infinite hedges on a admittedly cool twist that is poorly executed when scrutinized. The gameplay takes a huge step back, it isnt the game that early gameplay and trailers promised. The world is less fleshed out. It was prescient politically and that makes it interesting but otherwise i have no desire to replay it.
Hurts to see the word "worst" related to Bioshock saga.
The 3 games are masterpieces.
oh great. Can’t wait to see the posts of game titles in a ranked order without context as to why.
In a podcast with Wassup Conversations, Jordan Thomas, director and the writer of BioShock 2 reveals his initial ideas for a new rapture and how they were shut down by 2K.
"My first proposal was about a little sister, it was playing as a little sister and it was much more horror-oriented pace and about vulnerability, closer to Thief frankly, but I was told no, we want it to be our Gears of War, this need to be a big shooter franchise with an emphasis on the shooter element, and so what I think of the protagonist of a shooter as is a big lumbering sort of porthole on a stick with guns sticking out in front like you’re almost a vehicle."
And he also wanted it to be above the sea or in space. What a wasted opportunity.
It's surprising the game turned out to be good with this guy at the helm. The combat mechanics were actually the biggest improvement in the sequel as much as he wouldn't want to hear that, everything else was inferior.
Have yet to play Bioshock 2, but exploring Rapture the first time around was a joy that I won't soon forget.
I really wish there'd been more encouragement of exploration of Rapture. It all felt too forced and pushed into getting on with the main storyline. Mostly thanks to that pesky 'go here' arrow.
eddieinzauto: The only guy who could legitimately pull off the phrase "banal, interstitial combat".
I think there are some really ballsy recommendations here, and as bold a move as they might have been for the Bioshock series, it'd definitely be worth a try.
When playing through Bioshock 2, I didn't feel that empowerment that you would normally think of as a Big Daddy, but at the same time I didn't really notice or care too much. The first game was successful without that element, so I just kind of saw it that way. However, the idea that splicers would run away from you, or that you could screw with other big daddies by trapping them or stealing their little sisters sounds just, if I may, Boston, wicked awesome.
I agree with the sentiment that the combat was in a lot of ways "filler", even though 2K Marin spent so much time on improving that aspect and beefing it up a little. I think that Irrational Games, when they first conceived Bioshock, essentially as System Shock 2, they wanted it to be largely about this unique combat system, and giving the player choices for how to deal with enemies. I think Bioshock 2 accomplishes that effectively.
HOWEVER, I also think that just because Irrational conceived of that game in one way doesn't mean that's how gamers have received it. What started as this cool idea about choice and how it worked into the plot and had this "meta-game" commentary did end up enticing players more towards the side of the story elements, especially the story of the city of Rapture itself. It kind of stopped being about combat decisions and capabilities, though those were sweet, and it became ALL about Andrew Ryan's "Great Chain", and the distortion of humanity through greed for power and the desire for freedom. Obviously this sounds a little overly dramatic, but I think the point is still solid that the Bioshock series, despite what devs might have had in mind, has evolved into a storytelling-through-explorati on series, and one that was immersive enough because of its uniqueness of environment and story and philosophy to ingratiate itself to gamers worldwide.
"Even actions as simple as roaming halls and reading old posters or observing architectural design, in essence shaping a post-mortem portrait of the former city and life within that city, are far more memorable than the 300th splicer the player shocks and drills into an undersea grave."
I agree completely. I have found the majority of my fun in this game comes simply exploring the world of Rapture when no ones around, or the area has been cleared. I find myself completely fascinated by the city design and gaining insight into how and why everything fell apart.