[QUOTE="Shame-usBlackley"]

I think when you take his entire conversation into account, and not just the "perfect gaming PC line" he makes a lot of logical points. The PS4 is not going to have to run a bloated OS. The PS4 is going to have a very large amount of RAM. The PS4 is going to be easy to develop on, and is designed around more than just specs. 

How is this even controversial?

LongZhiZi

I wouldn't call a major game dev dumb. He has to respond to the market. Because a significant portion of the market has the memory limitations due to 64 bit OS, they have to devote resources to making the game work within those limitations. Furthermore, map designs have to cater to the limit. 

[QUOTE="dvader654"]

Spoiler time

[spoiler] My favorite part of the ending is going to rapture. Totally geeked me out, sad it was for such a quick moment. The comstock thing is a bit weird, for one they cheat with the different voice actor, Also didn't Slate seem to know both Dewitt and Comstock during the battle, maybe it was worded cleverly. Still really cool interdimensional story.

But damn what a condemnation on religion. Man becomes religious so he creates a horrible slave society in the sky and becomes evil. Yikes. [/spoiler]

IndianaPwns39

[spoiler] Comstock's racism surely comes from his experiences at Wounded Knee and The Boxer Rebellion, and he was able to use religion as a tool of manipulation for his personal beliefs. What I think is more interesting is that he didn't necessarily become evil, but was already. Dewitt is far from a hero, and I like to think that the one we play as was desperately seeking redemption even if he didn't know it. I think that on some deep seeded level he knew Elizabeth was his daughter, and that's why he slowly started to fight for her and try to protect her. 

There's definitely a lot to debate. I love that Bioshock Infinite just proves games can be big and loud without being dumb. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]

It kind of annoys me that they had to hammer you over the head with the slave stuff.

Comstock if anything reminds me of the Mormons, who were not slave holders. Also, if you can create a flying city, why would you import black people to work as slaves? It really makes no sense. 

(yes, I'm saying that a fantasy game doesn't make sense)

They could have done it more simply by exclusion. Possibly even make the protagonist black (yeah, that messes up with the end) or at least a major companion character.

[/spoiler]

So one thing that I noticed...

ANyone else wish that they'd designed the game for next-gen consoles in mind? 

Like, the areas really aren't that big, and the city in the sky thing is just background. You can't really go up and touch it. 

I beat the game. It is incredible! The storyline is astonishing and mind-blowing. If anybody wants to discuss it, let's!

EvilSelf

So this is what I think after beating the game. 

[spoiler]

So in some alternate universe, a scientist invents quantum suspension which allows for the flying city. Using the tech, Comstock builds the city in the sky.

He tries to father an heir. Those result in failure. He blames the scientist and her brother. He has the industrialist Fink sabotage their machine so they're stuck between dimensions.

As revenge, they bring in alternate versions of him. Probably because due to the *time paradox* of two persons from different time streams being in the same universe, the alternate version is enhanced.

You are the alternate version. You are Comstock before he was "born again."

Comstock probably has some vague spiritual premonitions, but he isn't quite aware that you are him (otherwise, the obvious solution would be to talk it out).

...

and Elizabeth I don't quite get. She's locked up in the tower while Comstock keeps watch over her. I suppose that he received some prophetic premonition about her which said that if she were to ever become free, she would doom the city (which is true). But he won't kill her because...she has powers, but also she is his daughter (though I'm not sure if he is aware of this). But there's the twist about him being the person who hires Dewitt in the first place to catch Elizabeth and bring her to NYC. this might be the scientist twins lying.

[/spoiler]

I assume that the DLC will flesh out Fitzgerald's story, some of Comstock's story, and so on. It definitely will be weird when they're released, because the story won't really be fresh any longer. It would be like taking a 500 page Russian novel and then writing like a 30 page set of events using teh characters. 

So one piece of advice: don't listen to PCGAMER like I did and play the game on hard.

Play the game on medium.

hard is not fun. Hard always sucks the fun out of games.

I think there's clearly a lot of mass effect influence on this game. Like, there's a biotic charge ability and also a...lifting ability that weren't in the first bioshock.

Also, this game should have multiplayer. The rails could make for great MP maps and memorable action. 

and...

for some stupid reason I will start games on hard and then get stuck as a result of that choice. Probably the only games where hard is actually interesting and plausible is RTS campaigns. 

Portal definitely.

Darkness II has one of the best female characters ever in a game, that makes you feel intimacy without any cheap exploitativeness. 

Mafia II I felt was way underappreciated. Like, there are some very very sophisticated game design elements in the game that are very very impressive. The AI is one of the best I've ever seen in a game, and the way that they apply real trajectory into the damage a car takes is also impressive.

Bioshock Infinite will be remembered well. I haven't finished it yet, however.

Uncharted 2 is good because it sort of got away from the annoying dumb machoness in games.

Okay, so despite the negative impressions I gave earlier...

It all starts to come together once you get the electroshock ability. I'm getting into it a lot more. 

with the rails and the summonable tears, you have lots of mobility and lots of chaotic action. Pretty good. 

about the ai... meh, lets face it, any FPS you play the ai is going to be crapblangenakker

true true.

AI ties in with level design also. 

I wonder if anyone has played the game using 3d vision glasses.

It seems like it would be really good for 3d because of the wide open architecture.

I kind of agree with him.

The enemies use pretty much teh same ai as in first bioshock from 2007. This is a shooter of course, and cover is frustrating to deal with, but there's that.

I get the political/philosophical theme being displayed here, and I find it heavy-handed. It's kind of like the  post-modern college American history course where it's all about oppression. Anyways, the entire draw of the game is the city of Columbia and the city of Columbia is about the glories of American exceptionalism. That's what makes the art engaging in the game even as the writing is condemning it as racist.

Character models look the same, and the faces especially remind me of Half Life *1* faces.

the jumping segments have no risk to them.

Level design does feel like...bioshock in the air. That is, I don't feel like level design is that different from the first despite the wide-open expanses. If you really wanted to exploit the design of this gameworld, make it more open-ended I say. Give me a glider like in firefall. that said, it is quite linear and so being in the air doesn't really give me a sense that it's a different paradigm.

I don't get the point of the inventory, since you don't have an inventory limit I just hit f quickly whenever I can and scoop up everything

Vending machines actually kind of annoy me for some reason. No need to have them in this game.

feels too linear to me, which prevents me from really enjoying the environment that was built up here. I also know that I'm basically plodding through set-pieces, and so combat is basically more of the clear x enemies to get to next segment type of gameplay. I've started to actually just run past enemies to the next story segment whenever I can. I also try to not kill many because I feel like I'm disrupting this idyllic paradise

I can steal money from a lady's purse right as she's sitting at the table and *nothing* will happen. I can steal food from a vender's stall right as he's standing there and *nothing* happens. I can walk up behind a cash register and empty it out while the clerk is in the store and *nothing* happens.

Good parts would be--

some fantastic artwork went into this game.

guns are incredibly good in the sound and recoil. That said, they are hitscan.

I just got Elizabeth and she's pretty interesting so far.

Interesting death sequence.

Unlike the first Bioshock, you actually get to see the glories of the society before it all becomes a violent hell. That is a huge improvement over the first Bioshock.

___

I'll see, but I don't think my first impressions will change much. It feels to me like they made it prettier but they didn't make any fundamental changes to the gameplay or in AI. In many ways it feels like Call of Duty.