Bioshock: Infinite

[Anery]

I didn't like Bioshock, I tried many times but I just can't fucking stand it. So I really have no idea why I bothered to pre-order this. I am glad I did though.
The story is good, the combat feels more substantial and offers far more options than were available in Rapture and I often find myself planning my attacks from some distance away - it reminds me a lot of Dishonoured, which I also loved. It involves a lot less frustration than the first one too, if I die I know why and how to avoid it - unlike the first which often had me quitting the game in disgust.
And its shiny....so much shiny...

[Mr. Johnson]

Ive not finished it yet, but by god the art in this game is bloody good. It might not be the most technically stunning (although its perfectly acceptable) the design of the place is sodding lovely. Also, whoever is responsible for the music deserves some sort of award.

Also this, it's like being in a Jules Verne novel.

[FatherJack]

Ive not finished it yet, but by god the art in this game is bloody good. It might not be the most technically stunning (although its perfectly acceptable) the design of the place is sodding lovely. Also, whoever is responsible for the music deserves some sort of award.

I do like the anachronistic soundtrack very much (it's supposed to be 1912), like a barber shop quartet delivering a Beach Boys number and a pipe organ cranking out a Cyndi Lauper classic.

I'm a little less sold on the heavy-handedness of the supposed theme of the disparity which causes conflict in the idyllic Columbia (racism, in case it wasn't obvious) as it's a rather simplistic model dredged from what were wildly differing attitudes across the globe at the time, plus random bits pulled out from markedly later times, such as the 1933-45 period.

I get that this sort of fits with the anachronistic theme, but the execution kind of flops into the nowhere-land between actually saying something relevant and complete fantasy.

I'm not letting it destroy my enjoyment of the game though and I agree about the artwork/level design. I am getting a pang of guilt every time it asks me if I really want to leave an area, as I have to consider if I've fully explored it and seen all its magnificent sights.

The comparison with Dishonored is a legitimate one - I see a lot of common mechanics between the two games, with the most obvious being the "eaten by rats" - "eaten by crows" parallel power, but that's no bad thing.

[Anery]

I have two criticisms to level at the game, neither are big ones but it would be nice if they had thought about them.

Conversations that Booker has with whoever overriding Vox recordings that I am listening to. Could they not pause the Vox whilst whatever conversation is taking place is done?

Save points, I'm not sure where they are, how often they are or anything else really regarding saves. I had a problem the other day whereby a bit of wandering around an area and defeating some annoying enemies yielded enough lockpicks for me to go back and pick a safe I had seen in a previous area. I figured that my moving from one area to another would trigger the autosave, nope - I wandered round some more killing more enemies and gaining more picks/money until I really had to stop playing and go to work - my saved game still had the same timestamp as it had 10 minutes previous. Not willing to give up 20 minutes + of gameplay I left the game running whilst I went to work.
I know that they don't want to break the immersion but would the quicksave ability really have ruined the game?

[Thompy]

Conversations that Booker has with whoever overriding Vox recordings that I am listening to. Could they not pause the Vox whilst whatever conversation is taking place is done?

That happened in Diablo 3 too oddly enough, with conversations and lore snippets overriding each other.

[FatherJack]

I have two criticisms to level at the game, neither are big ones but it would be nice if they had thought about them.

Conversations that Booker has with whoever overriding Vox recordings that I am listening to. Could they not pause the Vox whilst whatever conversation is taking place is done?

Save points, I'm not sure where they are, how often they are or anything else really regarding saves. I had a problem the other day whereby a bit of wandering around an area and defeating some annoying enemies yielded enough lockpicks for me to go back and pick a safe I had seen in a previous area. I figured that my moving from one area to another would trigger the autosave, nope - I wandered round some more killing more enemies and gaining more picks/money until I really had to stop playing and go to work - my saved game still had the same timestamp as it had 10 minutes previous. Not willing to give up 20 minutes + of gameplay I left the game running whilst I went to work.
I know that they don't want to break the immersion but would the quicksave ability really have ruined the game?

Well, you can easily replay the vox recordings, but a lot of the scripted voice tracks only happen once so it's best they override the phonograph track. I am still having the opposite problem, that I open a container or play a cinemascope just as Liz is saying something unique or a scene is occuring and as fast as I back out the moment is gone. I know I'm doing it wrong: I'm supposed to be staring around in wonderment and watching what Liz does, but I'm like "ooh, ooh, there's a fucking bin over there, I must search it". She also seems to be ready to chuck stuff I really need just when I'm pressing another button (like reload or vigor/weapon switch) which cancels the throw option. Fortunately iron sights doesn't cancel the action, as I'm in and out of that like a simile referencing your Mum.

The save thing I've talked about before and I guess the reason it's omitted is more a technical one than worries about making the game too easy, since if you die you aren't generally forced back to the checkpoint, only if you quit.
Forcing people to leave the game paused if their play is interrupted - possibly for days - is hardly the ideal situation, but I would guess that they just didn't implement into the save a record of where each entity (you, enemies and loot) is and what it's doing - loading saves brings you back to where everything's back in its scripted (or randomised) start place. Unless there were constraints on savegame filesize (prob on consoles) it seems a strange omission.

That leads me on to one of my minor complaints, which is far from exclusive to this title.

It plays well enough on a PC, but another thing that smells a bit consoley is the restriction on only carrying two weapons. Seriously...why? I know it kind of started with Halo, but why emulate a feature that nobody actually liked? The number of people that were clamouring for this must be roughly equivalent to those cheering with jubilation when the dogs from Medal of Honour were brought back in COD World at War, or the quantity of people who rush home excitedly so that they do not miss The One Show.

[Anery]

Just finished. Three words sum it up quite well:

What

The

FUCK?

[Mr. Johnson]

Just finished. Three words sum it up quite well:

What

The

FUCK?

This. Just thinking about it hurts my brain, and there's still a few things left unexplained.

[Dog Pants]

To the DLC-mobile!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuZxn0aT_UQ[/media]

[Dr. kitteny berk]

That was quite interesting.

Spoiler:

I feel dirty, I was trying to get into her pants

[FatherJack]

I finished it tonight after about 25 hours play, which is pretty good length-wise. I don't consider myself easily distracted, but it is actually quite rare that I complete a game - I usually kind of leave them after sections I'm not enjoying very much and forget to go back.

That didn't happen with this, which is a credit to the story, art and music. The ending wasn't entirely a surprise, and you can drive a bus through plot holes when you start introducing parallel universes and temporal physics, leaving you not entirely satisfied, but not sure exactly how you could have concluded it any better.

There were some good spine-tingling moments near the end, but they were only brief glimpses into truly different universes. I'd have loved if the rifts throughout the game had brought in totally different things, instead of things from only-slighty-alternate versions of Columbia.

I didn't miss much, scouring everywhere for things and stuff, probably two or three telescopes and a handful of vox recordings, so I don't have a massive reason to play it again. The exploration peaked at about 3/4 of the way through, with a huge area to explore, but it became very linear after that. I finished with 24 lockpicks and 1999 silver eagles because there just weren't any places or reasons to use/spend them. Nothing could match the power of the sniper rifle, and the start pistol once upgraded wasn't significantly worse than anything else in terms of damage-per-bullet and clip size.

The combat was in the main great fun. Nice tactical elements with the rifts and the sky hook, but I didn't use my vigors nearly so much as the game seemed to want me to. Having Liz along was great and I proper missed her the few times I had to fight without her constantly tossing ammo and salts my way. This is a great mechanic which I hope gets used a lot more.

There was nothing I hated and a lot I really liked, I think opportunities were missed, but to have a companion character who rivals Alyx Vance is a remarkable achievement.

[Mr. Johnson]

Having Liz along was great and I proper missed her the few times I had to fight without her constantly tossing ammo and salts my way. This is a great mechanic which I hope gets used a lot more

I was extremely happy with how they handled her character, and it's good to know some developers still know how a good female character is done. And when you first free her from the tower and the game tells you she can hold her own in combat and you don't have to worry about her, I let out a silent sigh of relief as I was already imagining the resident evil 4 scenarios where I ended up shooting Ashley more than the villagers.

[HereComesPete]

Damn spoilers!

[Joose]

you can drive a bus through plot holes when you start introducing parallel universes and temporal physics

As I mentioned in the other thread, what plotholes? I've heard a few people mention them, but in my googlings all I can find are the vast swathes of the internet masses who have clearly missed the point of the end entirely. I've been racking my brain since finishing it last night and cant think of any that are not explained away at some point.

I realise that comes across as a little "YOU ARE STUPID LIKE INTERNET PEOPLE!" but that's not what I mean at all; There may well be some bit of the story that has massive issues and I've just not noticed. If that's the case I want to know!

[Mr. Johnson]

Well, I still don't fully understand how

Spoiler:

Elizabeth got the power to use the tears

.

[Joose]

Spoiler:

In one of the voice recording doodads one of the "twins" says its something to do with the fact her finger got left behind. She is technically in two worlds at once, which gives her magic powers because science. Its not a great explanation, and its filled with handwavium, but it is explained.

[Mr. Johnson]

Ah, that explains that. I didn't find all the vox recordings, and it wasn't from a lack of trying to find them.

[Joose]

I was looking in every corner and I think I only got about half. Transcripts of all of them are on the interwebs though, I just went through and read the ones I missed once I was done. I'm buggered if I'm doing another playthrough just to get a handful of short audio clips.

[Dog Pants]

Well, I still don't fully understand how

Spoiler:

Elizabeth got the power to use the tears

.

I thought that was a 5punky Warcraft reference for a second.

[FatherJack]

you can drive a bus through plot holes when you start introducing parallel universes and temporal physics

As I mentioned in the other thread, what plotholes? I've heard a few people mention them, but in my googlings all I can find are the vast swathes of the internet masses who have clearly missed the point of the end entirely. I've been racking my brain since finishing it last night and cant think of any that are not explained away at some point.

I realise that comes across as a little "YOU ARE STUPID LIKE INTERNET PEOPLE!" but that's not what I mean at all; There may well be some bit of the story that has massive issues and I've just not noticed. If that's the case I want to know!

I did miss a few things which were explained away.

Spoiler:

I'd assumed Liz got her powers from the Lutece experiments rather than the finger. Rather than realising that was how she came to exist in two worlds, I just thought "oh, that's how she lost her finger"

Spoiler:

I didn't recognise the burning city as New York, which Booger "dreamt" in flames.

However,

Spoiler:

I get that the central theme is around new unverses being created every time you make a decision, but I don't know how the time travel gets in there, such as why it takes Booger 72 years to reach Liz and how she takes them to a familiar post-1946 setting

And my main issue is with the last bit:

Spoiler:

The two choices made: be baptised or not result in either becoming Comstock or not. By choosing to take a third option he supposedly destroys the possiblity that he will ever become Comstock in all possible universes. I don't how that's the case - what about all the other universes where he didn't take that option? It's the way it presents itself as a "there, I fixed everything" outcome when it just isn't.

Spoiler:

Sure, he's made a new branch free of Comstock and Columbia, as well as Anna and himself - as misery was inevitable in all the previous branches, but it's only salvation in that one stream. I assume the final scene is in his head - a final happy memory as he dies.

I'll concede it is a resolution from the player's perspective, though.