Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Games: PAX is tomorrow. I'll definitely be tweeting about it, and I'll try to get some reports from the floor up as soon as possible.


By the way, if you are at the show, I do believe we have an extremely small number of Cheesecake Tweetup tickets left. If you need something to do tomorrow night (9/3) at 7PM, walk across the street and join us!


Games: Completed Dead Rising 2: Case Zero tonight. Well, to be technically correct I should say that I completed it last night, but I was having so much fun that I decided to go for all of the Achievements and just wrapped it up an hour or two ago.

If you know the way I play games, then you'll know how extremely rare it is that I will take time out of my schedule for anything beyond getting credits to roll. Granted, the Achievements in Case Zero are extremely easy to pop, but the fact remains that it's possible to escape the town with half of them (or so) left unfulfilled. The fact that I cared enough to go back for a second and third playthrough is pretty high praise in my book.


After all was said and done, I walked away extremely impressed with how perfectly the complete Dead Rising experience was captured and shrunk down to Live Arcade size. It does not feel as though it's missing anything structurally, and there is enough content here for an average player to go through it at least a couple of times before they've seen and done everything.

For $5 this was an extremely satisfying investment, and Capcom can take that money and laugh all the way to the bank. Why? Prior to playing Case Zero, Dead Rising 2 was one of those “looking forward to it, but not bursting with excitement” titles for me, and now I'm strongly leaning towards making it a day-one purchase.

For fun, here are just a couple of tips for those trying to get all the Achievements. Old habits die hard, I guess... Doug Walsh shoutout!!




>Killing 1000 zombies is a lot quicker if you can pick out which one has a Queen bug inside.

In any big group of zombies, if you look carefully you might notice one who’s got their arms raised up and is sort of shuffling, or shaking in place. Kill that one, and a Queen insect will emerge to be picked up like an item. Grab it, and then run to the nearest large group of the undead. Smash it, and up to 50 zombies will have their heads explode at once. After you've done this, look around -- there's usually another Queen standing in the aftermath. If you get good at spotting them, you can chain several hundred kills together with very minimal effort.

>Spending $100,000 at the pawn shop is cumulative.

This one might take a couple of plays. By rescuing the couple from the bar (and then fulfilling her personal requests afterwards) you can get a big chunk of cash. After that, make sure to stop by the Casino and destroy all of the machines. The cash reappears after each save, so with just a few trips you can have a pretty good sum going. If it gets too boring, just know that the game keeps track of how much you spend in total, so you don't have to actually earn and spend all $100,000 in one go.


> Rescuing all the survivors is a piece of cake once you know where (and when) they appear.

The tricky one that’s easy to miss is Bob’s daughter. She only appears in the Hunting store after 7PM, which is exactly when you need to give your daughter her medicine, and the exact same time when you need to fight the boss at the garage. Multitasking ahoy! If you go into the fight well-prepared, you can do everything you need to and still have plenty of time left to save her. (and Bob too.)

Games: PAX Prime is THIS WEEKEND. I will see you there.


Games: If you’re going to be in or around the Portland area this September 18th and 19th (and you're not completely dehydrated from PAX Prime) you may want to make your way down to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo.

Taking place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near downtown, there will be free-play, arcade machines, exhibits, common areas and more, all devoted to the roots of everyone's favorite pastime.

Presale tickets are available, and you can click on over to THE SITE for further information. If you end up going, make sure you tell them ‘HI!’ from me!


Games: Dead Rising 2: Case Zero hit Live today, and I was only too happy to download it.

For those who don't know, Case Zero is a bit of a weird beast. It's essentially a demo for the full version of Dead Rising 2, but not exactly -- this demo has been reworked into a complete micro-adventure that gives players a real flavor for what the larger project will be like. It comes with its own achievements, and players who complete it will be able to carry over stats and items into the main game. If you ask me, this is a pretty bad-ass idea and I’m diggin’ it…


… Or at least, I was diggin’ it until the game kept booting me out to the main menu without giving me a chance to save any of my progress.

When I turned on my 360 this evening, I queued up five or six different things that I wanted to download and then got rolling in Case Zero. Unfortunately, every time one of the other things in my active downloads completed, it completely interrupted gameplay and kicked me out of my session. I've never had this happen to me with any other game, and it took me a minute or two to figure out what was going on.

Once I put two and two together, I stopped playing until the downloads finished -- or at least, until I thought they finished. There ended up being one more that I had forgotten about, and when I lost progress that last time, I decided to pack it in and start fresh in the morning.

I really, really like what I have seen of Case Zero so far, but Capcom should have caught this hiccup before releasing it. Granted, it's not a huge deal, but it was certainly irritating enough to make me stop playing it for the evening, and I expect better quality than that for a paid transaction.

Games: I also tried the Vanquish demo, a little slice of the latest project from Shinji Mikami and Platinum.

So.... the game.


It's quite beautiful, I give it that. I found the graphic quality to be outstanding, and seeing something that looks as clean and as detailed as this certainly makes me think there's plenty of life left in the old 360.

As for the rest... Well, I'll have to say that the jury is still out, but I'm not getting very positive vibes.

It's hard to tell from just a demo, but the characters and dialogue didn't do much for me and the bits we got seemed like a crazy lovechild from Halo and P.N. 03. I have a sneaking suspicion that unless there are more design surprises in store than what was in the demo, it might end up feeling very samey and repetitious.

It's way too early to call it, but my caution meter just rose a few increments. It's now yellow.


Games: Moving away from downloads, I wrapped up my second playthrough of Nier and saw the B ending. I'm glad that I went through that second time because the second ending really did add quite a bit to the experience. That said, I wasn't really up for replaying a third and fourth time (especially after finding out that there was a lot more collecting of things to be done) so I just YouTubed the C and D endings.

Interesting stuff to be sure, but after having seen all four, I think I was best satisfied with just A and B.


Games: Last but certainly not least, I elected to go with Prince of Persia: the Forgotten Sands as my next console play. (After that? Deadly Premonition, I'm fairly certain.)

I’m a pretty big PoP fan, and I like the crazy-surreal platforming gameplay the series has been known for since its big reboot in 2003. It certainly gets more than a little ludicrous at times when you look at how these "castles" are designed for nothing but an un-engineerable high-wire act, but leaping from ledge to ledge feels great, and there is a certain thrill in having a character that's so agile.


I'm liking what I'm seeing so far (it's a hell of a lot better than what we got with that bizarro never-die re-imagining last time) but this is coming from someone who is already predisposed to liking the franchise and who is basically okay with keeping grains of salt nearby.

Putting my fandom aside for a moment, the premise that this game is supposed to actually connect plot-wise with the original trilogy is a bit laughable. I didn't even try to swallow that one, and instead I see this title as a stand-alone one-off regardless of what Ubisoft says.

Talking about the Prince specifically, he's mad ugly. I don't know for a fact that the developers were actually trying to make visual connections between the Prince and Jake Gyllenhaal, but whatever their intentions were, all they ended up doing was making him look really odd and disconcerting. I ended up playing the first big chunk of the game with the Prince wearing Ezio’s outfit from Assassin’s Creed 2 since it did a good job of covering him up, but let's get serious -- that little Italian shoulder cape is hyper-fruity.

I ended up changing back to the original outfit, but if Altair’s costume had been the choice, I would've went with that.

It's been quite a busy week, though a fairly productive one... well, productive everywhere except this blog. Let's rectify that, shall we?

Games: Finished Nier.


I've got to say, that was one of the most original and exciting titles I've played in a while, mostly thanks to the wide variety of ideas and approaches the developers managed to cram onto one disc. I especially appreciated the time and effort put into fleshing out each of the characters, and I have no doubt that I will be able to clearly remember them years from now. Nier, especially… it's not often that games star a late-middle-aged father who is basically an ugly bastard doing odd jobs to support his family, but that's exactly what's going on here -- and I loved it.

I suppose that I was probably a little more inclined to like the story since I am approaching middle age myself, as well as being a father of two. Many of the themes within the game resonated quite strongly, and it was incredibly refreshing to play something that I felt spoke to something other than the spiky-haired-emo-teen-saves-the-world demographic. If developers branched out like this more often, the entire industry would be in a better place.


I've been discussing the game with a few other critics who've finished it, and it seems that at least one more playthrough will be required before fully grasping the depth of the developers’ vision. As a result, I started a second run last night. This re-start lets players keep their levels and equipment and begins halfway through the game, so I imagine that it will be a pretty rapid completion… ripping through bosses with my upped Axe of Decapitation is like running a hot knife through butter. I'm glad that the developers didn't ask players to start from scratch, though. As interested and as willing as I am to see what else they have to say about the characters, I don't think I would be up for multiple twenty-hour playthroughs.

As much as I enjoyed the game (and really, I did enjoy it – Nier is absolutely going to be on my year-end Top 10) I didn't feel that the second half was quite as strong as the first half. Without trying to spoil anything, the game is clearly split into two parts -- the first part is full of homages and references to other games, and is certainly the more "experimental" section. The second section is still good, but relaxes into a more recognizable JRPG format. I still enjoyed it, but it didn't have the same intense level of creativity and originality that the first half did.


The ending was especially disappointing… it felt very traditional in terms of what I would expect from a ‘concept’ JRPG, and wasn't nearly up to the same standard as some of the other parts. I'm hoping that will change after I see the other three endings, but at this point it seems as though Nier is one of those games that's all about the journey rather than the destination.


Games: FYI: there is no such thing as ‘hurrying up’ to finish a game like Etrian Odyssey III. The review is due in another day or so, and I haven't finished it yet. I've certainly played more than enough to give it a very fair evaluation (over 30 hours so far) but as much as I want to get it wrapped up, this game moves at its own pace and there is simply no changing that. Any shortcuts taken by the player are guaranteed to end in a Game Over, and progress comes in small, hard-won increments. In this particular case, patience is a virtue.


Television: I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, I find myself coming back to the same shows. I've got a few favorites, and they are more than enough to occupy any non-game couch time that I may have. At the moment, I've been watching Burn Notice, White Collar, Psych, Warehouse 13, The Soup, and Dr. Who (Season Two – and Tennant is still not winning me over.)


When the normal network season resumes, I'll go back to The Office and Community. I like Sanctuary too, though I'm not sure when (or if) it’s coming back.

I don't really want to add very many more shows to my regular rotation, but I'm wondering if any of you have other programs you'd like to recommend, based on the viewing profile I've outlined above? If you think of something that might be up my alley, drop me a line and let me know!


Comics: While I'm listing favorites, I'm currently picking up small number of comic books on a regular basis. These include: Invincible, The Walking Dead (of course), Chew, Echo, The Sixth Gun, and Wormwood (when it comes out.)

If you’ve got some favorite monthlies that you think are worth a look, give me a shout. I'm not really reading a lot of straight-up superhero stuff lately, but I'm not opposed to it -- I’ll try any book with strong character work.

As for what I'm avoiding: stories-with-no-end and books that retcon or reboot multiple times in order to keep themselves going. (see: Marvel and DC.)


Oh, and any comic book creator who brings back Devil Dinosaur on a monthly basis will be my hero for life.  Let's make it happen, people.

Podcast: The last GameCritics podcast recorded live was ridiculously epic in length. With three meaty topics to cover, we just couldn't fit it all in one show. The answer? Cut the damn thing in half. The first segment of the most recent episode is now available on the iTunes and Zune marketplaces, and will also be available for download at GameCritics itself (most likely) tomorrow.


In the meantime, my good friend, witty snarker and all-around brilliant dude Matthew Kaplan did me the great honor of choosing me as the first guest for his podcast, Game In Mind. It's a one-on-one piece that will probably tell you more about me than you ever wanted to know.

In addition, I explain how I came up with the Coffeecola name and chat about some of my more controversial reviews. If you've got time and the interest, check it out HERE. If you like what you hear and you're also on Twitter, you can give Matt a follow at @MattGKaplan. He will entertain you, I guarantee.

Games: I polished off Dante’s Inferno a couple of days ago, and liked it so much that I went back and completed the Gates of Hell survival mode, and I never do that kind of stuff. In fact, I was almost tempted to play through it again in order to max out the Evil side of the skills tree, but common sense got the better of me and I figured that my time should probably go towards something else in my to-play pile.

I dashed out a review last night that will go up sometime in the near future, but I have to say that in a rather unusual turn of events, I think my piece will be much more positive than the norm. You can certainly read it for yourself and let me know what you think, but one thing I find quite puzzling is that I've heard from tons of people that the game ran out of imagination, or took a nosedive at the end. I didn't really feel that way, and when asked for specifics, it's usually the series of arena trials that they point to.


I can understand not liking them since they do stick out from the rest of the levels (and trying to stay airborne for 8 seconds is complete garbage) but to be perfectly frank, I whipped through those so quickly that the segment seemed like a complete non-event compared to how much people were trash-talking it. I'm not trying to say that I'm some kind of super player with better-than-you skills at all, it was just that the entire piece was something like ten minutes long. When compared to the five hours and fifty minutes of pretty damned entertaining gameplay, the reaction to that brief part seems a little overblown to me.


Games: Speaking of overblown reactions (how’s THAT segue?) I started playing Nier yesterday. Although it was the victim of a pretty intense word-of-mouth smear campaign thanks to the infamous fishing segment, nearly every intelligent person that I respect had nothing but good things to say about it. After seeing this consensus, I felt compelled to bump it up to the top of my playlist, and I'm really glad that I did. I'm only about six hours in, but so far it's been a very measured, mature and intriguing game that's a massive step up compared to the kind of work that developer Cavia has previously turned out.


So, about that fishing.

If you were anywhere near the IntArwebz when Nier was released, it was impossible to avoid hearing about how stupidly terrible, atrociously bad, and game-ruining the fishing segment was. I seem to recall at least two reviews where the writer claims to have stopped playing thanks to that particular bit, and there was even a video review making the rounds where the person on camera was having an emotional meltdown while showing the viewer ‘evidence’ of what a nightmare the fishing was.

At this point, I'd like to call bullshit on all of that.

Look, the fact is that the fishing minigame comes off as broken. I certainly admit that. It's not fun and it could use a little tweaking in terms of playability. If nothing else, the developers absolutely should have explained how the mechanics work in much greater detail than they do. However, all that said, the game only requires a player to fish once. Once that's done, it never needs to be revisited.

Reading over some of the complaints again, it seems as though a big problem is that most of the people trying to get through this segment are fishing in the wrong place. If a player has a map of the area (which I bought immediately upon entering the town) then the game displays A BIG GODDAMN RED X where you're supposed to go fishing.

Furthermore, if the player has set the difficulty level to Easy, the game GIVES YOU THE FISH after failing the attempt three or four times. It literally gives you the fish. I got through this section in about four or five minutes --total-- and once that was done, I never looked back.

I absolutely understand that this particular minigame was not as polished as it could've been, but no reviewer with a shred of professionalism or self respect should have overreacted to such a wild degree and dismissed the game as a whole because of it. At worst, a few minutes at GameFAQs could have resolved the issue and then those covering the game would have seen how much more Nier has to offer. If you ask me, this is easily one of the best games I've played this year, and I find it shameful the way it was treated. With all the complaints of inspiration-free sequels and formulaic cash-ins, why were people so quick to give something bucking the trend such a cold shoulder?

If you're the kind of open-minded player who's interested in games that defy convention, offer genre-bending experiences, and explore alternatives in characterization and narrative, you owe it to yourself to at least try Nier. There's really nothing else quite like it.

... Just promise me that you’ll get past the fishing before passing judgment on it.

Games: I haven't talked about Etrian Odyssey III for a while, but I'm still playing. I've been putting in a few hours each night while in bed, and if nothing else, this game delivers an extremely healthy amount of content. I thought for sure I'd have polished it off by now, but I'm still chipping away. I'm not complaining though, the game is quite entertaining.

While I'm quite glad to have secured an early copy, one of the downsides of reviewing games before release is that there is often little or no information available online . After all, how can someone write an FAQ before the game’s even released? It's true that there are some walkthroughs out that are based on the Japanese version, but sometimes things change, or it can be hard to figure out the finer details with differences in translation.

Anyway, my point in bringing this up is that now that I'm more than halfway and have finally figured out most of the tricks up the game’s sleeve, I'm sorely tempted to go back to the beginning and rebuild my characters from scratch.


For those of you who intend to play and buy the game (which should be all of you, really) know that there comes a point at which your characters are able to add a sub-class. For example, a starting party might be Gladiator, Monk, Hoplite, Arbalist, Zodiac. After the choice is available, some of those classes might be more attractive as a sub-class instead. The Gladiator can become a Gladiator/Hoplite, and the Monk can become a Monk/Zodiac, for example. I did not know this at the beginning of the game, and if I had, I believe it would have changed which characters I picked.


This is important to know because characters only gain one skill point per level, and earning a level is serious business in Etrian. It takes a long time, and every little bit counts. It's certainly possible to re-configure a character (and the game goes out of its way to provide the player options) but it's infinitely better to start off properly and craft them the way you want from the get-go. I'm somewhere in the ballpark of 30-ish hours last I checked, and that's too much time to just call a wash. I'm pressing on, but the perfectionist inside me is screaming.

One other thing to know -- there are two special classes available only after a certain plot point. Things may change if I get a little further, but as of right now, it appears that only one is accessible per playthrough. The Yggdroid can be selected if you choose to protect, and the Samurai (pretty sure it’s a Samurai, though I may be getting the name wrong) opens up if you choose to attack. You'll know what I mean when you get there.

I've only had the Yggdroid on my team, but so far it seems extremely similar to a Hexer from EO2. This certainly isn't a bad thing, but I'm noticing that it takes a heck of a lot of experience points in order to get all of its systems running properly.

My advice to anyone would be to retire a high-level character (at least 40 or so) before having the ‘droid join your team. I took one on too early, and it was extremely rough going since it was both fragile and weak at the start. It's becoming a killing machine now, but it took quite a bit of effort and patience. I would do it differently next time around.



Games: Tomorrow's podcast is going to feature a new segment where one of the critics suggest a game they like, and then the rest of the crew plays it to see what they think. We then compare and contrast, and I'm sure there will be spirited discussion of some sort. The two games selected were Too Human (Tim’s pick) and any of the Dynasty Warriors games (Chi’s pick).


As I mentioned earlier, I did actually complete Too Human and even went so far as to write a full review. It hasn't gone live yet, but it will shortly. As far as Dynasty Warriors, I ended up going with DW6 on the 360. Not to spoil the podcast or anything, but let's just say that... I didn't finish it.

This is going to be a fun chat.


Games: After doing my due diligence for the show (and noticing that there’s a much-needed lull in current releases) I went to my "play this later" stack and selected Dante’s Inferno. An infamous title for several reasons, I think it's fair to say that I didn't expect anything more than a poorly-conceived God of War clone, but the reality is that it's a much better game than I could have guessed.

To be certain, it draws heavy inspiration from Kratos. That is not in dispute. However, in an odd turn of events, God of War 3 actually sucked a fat one (yes, that's a scientific term) so my recent hack-and-slash jones went unsatisfied. By comparison, Dante’s knows exactly what it's trying to do and does it in very polished fashion.


Aside from the smooth mechanics, one of the things I appreciate most about it is the attention to detail and the imagination on display in each of the hellish realms. The imagery is fantastic, with many interesting interpretations of the underworld and plenty of classic iconography.

In terms of its treatment of the source material, I certainly admit that I was highly dubious (to say the least) of developers appropriating a literary classic, but after having seen the way it was used, I think it was done very smartly.

To start with, I'd be willing to bet that out of everyone who's played the game, only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction have actually read The Inferno. I certainly haven't. I haven't even talked to or heard of anyone who has. However, I don't think the pertinent question is how faithful the game is to literature, as so many in the press seemed to insist.

To me, inspiration can be drawn from any source, so for the developers to say that their muse was Aligheri’s work is certainly fair enough. The real litmus test in my mind is whether or not the game holds up on its own, and it certainly does. The story of Dante’s personal failings and his quest to rescue Beatrice would be more than satisfactory for any random brand-new IP, so I don't see much need to compare it 1-to-1 to the book. It's perfectly obvious that the developers aren't being slavishly faithful, so why all the consternation?

Another thing I appreciate is that there’s almost no dead space or fat that needs trimming. I've long been a fan of any game that knows what it’s about, gets to it, and then ends with dignity. I'm estimating that this playthrough will take me between 5 and 6 hours, and that strikes me as being perfect for something so action-heavy. Anything more would be needless repetition, and that's never welcome.


Finally (and I admit it's really odd to call out) but I'm totally in love with a particular animation sequence. When Dante charges up his crucifix for a power blast, there's just something visually powerful -- almost arresting -- about it. He crouches back, winds up, and a giant explosion of photons slams into whatever’s approaching. I've seen the animation a thousand times, but it never gets old. I don't subscribe to any particular religion so I don't have a special reverence for all of the Christian elements, but seeing this character charge through the gates of hell and blast everything in sight with pure, holy light has a certain potency about it… in terms of pure visuals, it really works. He's kicking ass for the Lord.

... and on that note, I should probably be getting back to it. Beatrice still needs saving, after all.

Writing: My apologies to you if you've clicked here a few times and been disappointed at the lack of updates. By way of explanation, I haven't posted to the blog in a while because I've been putting all my spare time towards wrapping up the final edits on my latest book.


I burnt a small amount of midnight oil last night (actually, it was probably more like 2AM oil) and pushed through to the end -- edits are now complete, and barring any unforeseen feedback from my test readers, I'm calling this thing done.

Massive thanks to everybody that's asked and expressed interest. Your support has been awesome and I am absolutely appreciative, but although I'd love to, I actually can't talk about any details at the moment. There are still a few pieces that need to fall into place, but things are looking good and I expect it to be published and available sometime on or around the end of this year.

More info to come as it becomes available, but for the moment, I will say that it feels pretty spectacular to put the wraps on another big project like this one.


Games: After finishing up the book, I completed another "big project" -- I rolled credits on Too Human (360) in preparation for this weekend's podcast recording.

I won't talk about it too much since that's going to be one of the main topics for the show, but I will say that it wasn't nearly the disaster I expected it to be. That's not to say that it was actually enjoyable, but there certainly were some positive things about it and I could see a lot of potential there.


All told, the game took me about nine hours to complete. Looking back on the experience from start to finish, I'd estimate that there is really only about 3, maybe 3 1/2 hours of decent content to be had. The rest is pure repetition, grinding and tedious. Although I personally got some value out of the game, I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Chalk this this one up as a critical learning experience.


Comics: A friend on Twitter recently recommended that I check out The Sword, published by Image and written/drawn by the Luna brothers. I picked up all four volumes (trade paperback) and handed them over to the wife while I was busy with other things. She devoured them and gave the series a solid thumbs-up.


Now that my plate has cleared up a bit, I was finally able to crack the first volume and it seems quite interesting so far. The story's about a handicapped girl who finds a special sword and comes into conflict with three people who are after it. These three murder her family which sets off a chain of events, and the story goes on from there.

I'm still quite early in the tale, but I'm liking what I'm seeing. One quick note, I will say that the level of gore caught me by surprise. Not that gore is a bad thing by any means, it was just… surprising.


I also recently finished up volume 5 of Preacher, from DC’s Vertigo imprint. Although I'm a big, big Garth Ennis fan, I actually hadn't started the series until recently. In a way, I'm glad that I waited because now I can read through it at my own pace instead of waiting for each issue month by month!


For those that aren't familiar, Preacher is about a man named Jesse Custer. He's got a spirit with the power of a god inside him, so he sets out to find *actual* God in order to kick his ass. Of course, the story is a lot more complicated than that and I certainly don't mean to do it a disservice, but that's basically it in a nutshell. Keeping Jesse company are his gun-for-hire girlfriend and an Irish vampire who’s got a serious disdain for vampiric tropes. Hilarity ensues.

It's raw, it's often brutal, and it's certainly shocking on occasion, but Ennis is a fantastic writer and there are very few comics out there quite like this one. If you tried and liked Wormwood (another of my faves) this’ll be right up your alley.

Games: Today was a bit of an unusual day in that I was actually near a computer with a few free minutes while a big games reveal was happening. Of course, that game was Irrational’s BioShock Infinite.


(The timing was fairly ironic since I just finished BioShock 2 and turned in a review, but that was sheer coincidence.)

As I was monitoring TweetDeck and seeing people talk about the reveal in real-time, it was actually quite fascinating. It began with a lot of buzzing about what the reveal would actually be, followed by a quick surge of ‘yay, BioShock’, which was itself quickly followed by ‘boo, more BioShock.” After that was, of course, “quit being BioShock haters”…

I have to admit that my gut reaction was probably closer to ‘boo’ than ‘yay’ until I saw the trailer, after which my outlook became significantly more positive. However, my feelings and others' similar ups and downs got me thinking…

1> The name BioShock Infinite is incredibly stupid. Infinite? Really? I can't help but think there are probably somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty-four thousand other names that would sound less cheesy and be a little more descriptive of the actual game.


2>Some of the negative sentiment seems to be about the BioShock name itself. Having set two games underwater, I do think it's understandable that some players would expect more of that same premise, whether it's a good or bad thing.

I actually see Irrational’s new goal of expanding the BioShock IP past Rapture as a brilliant step, but I think the whole thing would've been a bit easier to swallow if the series hadn't gone for a quick buck with BioShock 2.

Don't get me wrong -- I actually liked BioShock 2, and in general, I think I’d even say that I liked it more than the first game. However, looking at it soberly, I'll be the first to admit that it didn't feel like much more than an extended add-on. There were very little changes to the formula, and the straightforward campaign held few surprises. If it had been packaged as DLC, I think everyone would have praised it, but positioning it as a legitimate numbered sequel rang hollow to a lot of people, myself included.

If the IP had used BioShock 2 as a DLC holdover and had reserved using the actual number 2 for Infinite, I think most people would understand more quickly and easily that the BioShock name is now meant to be applied to an entire world concept, rather than solely what was contained under the sea.


3> I haven't seen any videos of actual gameplay, but I did read a fairly descriptive text account of a section that was shown to a group of journalists/reviewers. From what I can gather, the gameplay sounds significantly different than anything that's gone before. In my book, this is the best possible news.


Of course, I don't want or expect Infinite to be a complete departure from things that have already been established, but the thought of another silent protagonist who collects various Plasmids and Tonics while listening to a truckload of audio logs is not something that appeals to me regardless of the new scenery. For the sake of the IP, I sincerely hope that Infinite is a substantial change to the status quo.


While the amount of information available on BioShock Infinite and the future of the series is still quite limited, the tiny bit I’ve seen so far does leave me feeling very hopeful. I'm a fan of the aesthetics and concepts the series has displayed so far, and applying those ideas to a larger, more holistic worldview seems to offer immense potential. If Levine and company can avoid tiresome yearly iterations and the ever-present temptation of cash-in sequelitis, we might just be on the verge of something huge here.