Bioshock Infinite - the $200 million 6 hour literally on rails interactive movie with guns thread

[Machocruz]

Lol, people don't even know what 'cartoon' means. Overstrike looks like some goofy comic book art, but it's not "cartoony." And why is that even a negative? If a game came out looking like some golden age Warner Brothers or early Popeye, it would have better art direction than 95% of the games out there.

 

[J1M]

Not sure I follow you. That trailer does look like cartoony animation done on the cheap by a south korean studio. It also contains zero gameplay.

It also doesn't look like they've changed any mechanics, just visuals.

The point is, it's an example of focus groups having an impact.

Ok, sure.

But that is a little bit different than saying "sorry the gameplay is more of the same, we had an awesome game until focus testers ruined it! Thanks for buying the game, we didn't deceive you with previews by suggesting it would be a hardcore experience because it used to be like that. "

 

[Infinitron]

But that is a little bit different than saying "sorry the gameplay is more of the same, we had an awesome game until focus testers ruined it! Thanks for buying the game, we didn't deceive you with previews by suggesting it would be a hardcore experience because it used to be like that. "

*shrug* It's not like focus groups are an excuse for anything. The developers and publishers choose to use them and they are part of the finished product. They're not an external factor caused by "evil people" like piracy. I'm not sure why you're so skeptical about them, they're just another part of the decline.

 

[J1M]

But that is a little bit different than saying "sorry the gameplay is more of the same, we had an awesome game until focus testers ruined it! Thanks for buying the game, we didn't deceive you with previews by suggesting it would be a hardcore experience because it used to be like that. "

*shrug* It's not like focus groups are an excuse for anything. The developers and publishers choose to use them and they are part of the finished product. They're not an external factor caused by "evil people" like piracy. I'm not sure why you're so skeptical about them, they're just another part of the decline.

Because even people around here like to list them as a valid reason for why the stealth in Dishonored is not the way they were expecting it to be, etc.

I'm just pointing out that it is not a valid reason for why games are shit. It seems you already know this so you are not my target audience.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm just pointing out that it is not a valid reason for why games are shit. It seems you already know this so you are not my target audience.

They might not be the ultimate reason for why games are shit, but they're an integral part of the process of making shitty games. If an audience of twelve year olds can't comprehend a feature, that feature is out.

 

[J1M]

I'm just pointing out that it is not a valid reason for why games are shit. It seems you already know this so you are not my target audience.

They might not be the ultimate reason for why games are shit, but they're an integral part of the process of making shitty games. If an audience of twelve year olds can't comprehend a feature, that feature is out.

Perhaps children that aren't the offspring of 'popamole developers' should be selected then.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Anyone else find it odd that they claimed to have cut 1-2/3's of the story line yet they released what, no DLC's for the game?

 

[DalekFlay]

They might not be the ultimate reason for why games are shit, but they're an integral part of the process of making shitty games. If an audience of twelve year olds can't comprehend a feature, that feature is out.

Yeah, it's worse than general mainstream-aiming because you get real retards on-hand to surprise you with how stupid they can be. And honestly how much is that pandering really needed? I bet those idiots would have bought BioShock either way, they just might not have finished it or complained on forums more. So? This idea that everyone in the mainstream audience should love and finish your game is what turns games into generic slop.

/preachingtothechoir

 

[sea]

Yeah, it's worse than general mainstream-aiming because you get real retards on-hand to surprise you with how stupid they can be. And honestly how much is that pandering really needed? I bet those idiots would have bought BioShock either way, they just might not have finished it or complained on forums more. So? This idea that everyone in the mainstream audience should love and finish your game is what turns games into generic slop.

/preachingtothechoir

This is the thing I do not get. Unless even the monkey man-child journalists are that moronic as well, the fact is that with a mainstream title, 95% of your sales come from people who watch a trailer and think "cool!", or see X/10 on Metacritic and think "must be good, I should get it", or they see the first 10-15 minutes of the game at a friend's house. So long as you have the right check-boxes in terms of features your target demographic wants, an art style/property/etc. that resonates with them, and marketing muscle to get the word out, there's absolutely no need to dumb your game down to the point that they are these days. Most players who are threatened by anything other than button = awesome? They're those same guys who probably won't even fucking play your game more than 30 minutes no matter how mechanically interesting or not it is, they're just in it because they liked the shinies they saw on TV, or because their friends got it.

I don't want to imply those people are stupid, by the way, just that some people just are not too interested in gameplay; specifically creating games for people who don't care about gameplay is just the height of stupidity. There is a difference between play-testing to find obvious problems that arise in pacing when developers get too attached to their work, and stripping out everything but the most basic elements because one of your testers got stuck walking down a straight corridor. It's what you get when a) the people pulling the strings aren't gamers and b) you are beholden to create a mass entertainment product for as wide an audience as possible, but I'm pretty sure that Michael Bay's films wouldn't sell any fewer tickets if the script wasn't awful, there wasn't product placement every 5 seconds, and they got some decent actors.

 

[DalekFlay]

This is the thing I do not get. Unless even the monkey man-child journalists are that moronic as well, the fact is that with a mainstream title, 95% of your sales come from people who watch a trailer and think "cool!", or see X/10 on Metacritic and think "must be good, I should get it", or they see the first 10-15 minutes of the game at a friend's house. So long as you have the right check-boxes in terms of features your target demographic wants, an art style/property/etc. that resonates with them, and marketing muscle to get the word out, there's absolutely no need to dumb your game down to the point that they are these days. Most players who are threatened by anything other than button = awesome? They're those same guys who probably won't even fucking play your game more than 30 minutes no matter how mechanically interesting or not it is, they're just in it because they liked the shinies they saw on TV, or because their friends got it.

I don't want to imply those people are stupid, by the way, just that some people just are not too interested in gameplay; specifically creating games for people who don't care about gameplay is just the height of stupidity. There is a difference between play-testing to find obvious problems that arise in pacing when developers get too attached to their work, and stripping out everything but the most basic elements because one of your testers got stuck walking down a straight corridor. It's what you get when a) the people pulling the strings aren't gamers and b) you are beholden to create a mass entertainment product for as wide an audience as possible, but I'm pretty sure that Michael Bay's films wouldn't sell any fewer tickets if the script wasn't awful, there wasn't product placement every 5 seconds, and they got some decent actors.

Great post.

I have only one thing to add. Sometimes you need a game that confuses you and makes you learn it. Most would stop playing and move on, but many will learn how to play and become better gamers for it. When I first started playing RPGs in 1995 or so with Betrayal at Krondor and eventually the IE games and Fallout, I had NO idea what the fuck was going on. I was a SNES kid who started playing PC games for adventure games and shooters like Doom. What the fuck were stats? What the fuck were classes? I had no fucking idea.

In today's climate I would have been seen as a problem. The solution would have been to make those RPGs more like Dark Forces so I could immediately play them. Then where would I be today, though? Instead I learned how to play RPGs after buying them because they looked awesome. Now I have a broader range of gaming skills and taste.

It's just ridiculously ignorant and stupid to pretend we need to make everything playable for everyone. I would almost think it were a conspiracy to keep the little people ignorant and stupid, were I not filled with disbelief that human beings are capable of executing such an elaborate plan.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, it's worse than general mainstream-aiming because you get real retards on-hand to surprise you with how stupid they can be. And honestly how much is that pandering really needed? I bet those idiots would have bought BioShock either way, they just might not have finished it or complained on forums more. So? This idea that everyone in the mainstream audience should love and finish your game is what turns games into generic slop.

/preachingtothechoir

This is the thing I do not get. Unless even the monkey man-child journalists are that moronic as well, the fact is that with a mainstream title, 95% of your sales come from people who watch a trailer and think "cool!", or see X/10 on Metacritic and think "must be good, I should get it", or they see the first 10-15 minutes of the game at a friend's house. So long as you have the right check-boxes in terms of features your target demographic wants, an art style/property/etc. that resonates with them, and marketing muscle to get the word out, there's absolutely no need to dumb your game down to the point that they are these days. Most players who are threatened by anything other than button = awesome? They're those same guys who probably won't even fucking play your game more than 30 minutes no matter how mechanically interesting or not it is, they're just in it because they liked the shinies they saw on TV, or because their friends got it.

I don't want to imply those people are stupid, by the way, just that some people just are not too interested in gameplay; specifically creating games for people who don't care about gameplay is just the height of stupidity. There is a difference between play-testing to find obvious problems that arise in pacing when developers get too attached to their work, and stripping out everything but the most basic elements because one of your testers got stuck walking down a straight corridor. It's what you get when a) the people pulling the strings aren't gamers and b) you are beholden to create a mass entertainment product for as wide an audience as possible, but I'm pretty sure that Michael Bay's films wouldn't sell any fewer tickets if the script wasn't awful, there wasn't product placement every 5 seconds, and they got some decent actors.

Well, there is the matter of competition with other developers. If one developer makes teh easy games that retards can finish, and the other one doesn't, then retards will prefer the former developer's games.

 

[sea]

Great post.

I have only one thing to add. Sometimes you need a game that confuses you and makes you learn it. Most would stop playing and move on, but many will learn how to play and become better gamers for it. When I first started playing RPGs in 1995 or so with Betrayal at Krondor and eventually the IE games and Fallout, I had NO idea what the fuck was going on. I was a SNES kid who started playing PC games for adventure games and shooters like Doom. What the fuck were stats? What the fuck were classes? I had no fucking idea.

In today's climate I would have been seen as a problem. The solution would have been to make those RPGs more like Dark Forces so I could immediately play them. Then where would I be today, though? Instead I learned how to play RPGs after buying them because they looked awesome. Now I have a broader range of gaming skills and taste.

It's just ridiculously ignorant and stupid to pretend we need to make everything playable for everyone. I would almost think it were a conspiracy to keep the little people ignorant and stupid, were I not filled with disbelief that human beings are capable of executing such an elaborate plan.

Some have speculated that the American education system is responsible for breeding people who don't want to think, who aren't used to failure, and want to constantly be praised for every action, even their mistakes. It's not too surprising to find that such an education system has been responsible for raising millions who are unwilling to learn and demand constant rewards just to stay interested. Also explains why more mechanically complex games are more popular in Europe in comparison.

 

[Dexter]

So apparently loud and obnoxious complaints by the PC police have managed to change yet another game: http://www.oxm.co.uk/47662/features/the-oxm-breakdown-women-in-videogames/

Spoiler

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I don't see the change? And that OXM video was pretty funny and reasonable like most of those OXM breakdown videos?

I'm all for getting out the torches and pitchforks but that video and those pictures aren't really doing it for me. I guess her tits are smaller in the drawn pictures than the in-game model? Game models are always a bit different from concept art. Are you upset that he wasn't wild that her tits are hanging out? I'm not all that crazy about it either. He didn't even seem to be complaining that the person you're supposed to be protecting/saving/rescuing/whatevering was a woman, more that he tits were hanging out such that they are.

I DUNNO BRO. Though he did vaguely defend Anita Sarkeesian so that's a minus for him.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Doesn't matter if they shrunk her breasts, she still looks like a kawaii with too much downs syndrome.

 

[dnf]

To be fair, the first model was more pedophile friendly. Fucking PC cunts

 

[Morgoth]

As a longstanding Irrational fanboy I hate to say this, but I got that bad feeling this might turn into a real turd. Why did it take so long to create the game in the first place? Kenny boy didn't have a clue first where to go with it? Internal crushing disputes?

Most disturbingly, the game moves away from the silent loner protagonist to some Pinkerton douchebag who has to babysit some mentally disturbed child with Super-Tits. The gunplay looks incredibly game-y and cheap, the jumping around on rail-lines just feels gimmicky and unnecessary, the strolling scenes where Elizabeth tells you some stupid story suggest a more linear, cutscene driven game, and they still haven't shown us some of the underneath mechanics like Plasmids (or whatever they're called here), upgrade system, different ammo types etc. Maybe my suspicions are unfounded, but I sure as hell won't make this a Day 1 purchase anymore.

 

[evdk]

Day 2 Purchase then? Day 1 Pirate?

 

[Morgoth]

Month 1 purchase maybe.

 

[Infinitron]

You fool, he's already pre-ordered it.

 

[villain of the story]

I will wait for the %75 discount.

And then laugh and STILL not buy that shit.

Really, who the fuck gives a flying fuck about BioFuck? Popamole consoltards.

R00FLES!

 

[Infinitron]

DRAMA - Bioshock Infinite's cover sucks: http://kotaku.com/5964876/yes-bioshock-infinites-cover-is-terrible-and-yes-that-actually-matters

 

[Metro]

I can't believe some schmuck gets paid to write an article about a game's box art.

 

[skuphundaku]

DRAMA - Bioshock Infinite's cover sucks: http://kotaku.com/5964876/yes-bioshock-infinites-cover-is-terrible-and-yes-that-actually-matters

Well, it does suck. Looks moar liek Call of Bioshock: Infinite Warfare.

 

[ohWOW]

I'm afraid that's not the cover you should be concerned about.

The game will be shit, so why bother about its box?