BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

**Tiko7523** · 09-04-2009, 12:30 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

I wonder when the real release date will be

**jfsolo** · 09-04-2009, 08:40 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Wow, somehow I missed the info about the delay. I'm actually very happy it got pushed back, my wallet will have a couple of buck left in it in November now . I wouldn't mind seeing it come out in May or June myself.

**Flawless** · 09-18-2009, 12:16 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

BioShock 2 worldwide in February

2K Games has announced that BioShock 2 will launch around the world on 9th February, 2010.

All three versions - PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 - will appear on the same day.

BioShock 2 had been shaping up for an autumn 2009 launch, once upon a time, but was pushed to 2010 in order to receive more polish and to enjoy a less cluttered schedule.

BioShock 2, as a reminder, casts players as the original Big Daddy, introduces a Big Sister arch-villain and includes multiplayer. Those are they key changes.

New developer 2K Marin has retained the core experience, setting the action once more under the sea, where the twisted inhabitants of Rapture await, oozing ADAM and Eve from their pores.

**frostbyte06** · 09-22-2009, 09:34 AM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

New article:

OXM Online Article

**frostbyte06** · 10-23-2009, 09:27 AM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Some BioShock 2 info is on the latest GTTV episode

GTTV Episode 226

**Flawless** · 10-26-2009, 01:44 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

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**Miles_Yuhas** · 10-26-2009, 04:23 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

I am pumped for this game. I doubt it will be able to live up to the first game, but it looks flat out awesome.

**frostbyte06** · 10-29-2009, 02:33 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Some hands on articles on the single player since the embargo has been lifted.

TeamXbox Article

IGN Article

1up Article

**LionsFanNJ** · 10-29-2009, 02:50 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Anyone been keeping up with the theres something in the sea website? Pretty cool

**frostbyte06** · 10-29-2009, 06:21 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Yep, I routinely check that summary thread on their forums because it's too much to keep up with the updates to the viral site.

**Flawless** · 11-19-2009, 02:15 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

BioShock 2 Special Edition

Like most major releases nowadays, BioShock 2 will also be getting its very own special edition package.

2K has revealed its impressive contents, and promises a limited, single-production run. So, if you want one, I'd probably pre-order it or something.

For $99 ($89 for PC), here's what you'll be getting:

A 13"x13" premium packaging with special art on both the slipcase and the box cover.
Three posters featuring vintage ads from Rapture (rolled)
A vinyl 180g LP featuring the orchestral score from the original BioShock
CD containing the BioShock 2 orchestral score
A 164 page 8"x11" hardbound artbook chock full of developer commentary

**goh** · 12-18-2009, 04:38 AM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/g.../achievements/

**garnettrules21** · 12-18-2009, 02:08 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Originally posted by Flawless

BioShock 2 Special Edition

The geek/deco fan in me would LOVE to have that.

**Flawless** · 12-18-2009, 04:36 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

1UP Video Preview

1UP's Alice Liang and David Ellis show off never-before-seen footage and offer impressions of what they've played of the game thus far.

**Flawless** · 12-21-2009, 03:39 PM

Re: BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Kotaku Preview

What's so winning in BioShock 2 is that, as it refrains early on from re-writing the rules of the first game, it instead amplifies that original's best aspects. It doesn't just look better or explore more of Rapture's interesting world, but it recognizes what played best in the first and does more of it.

There were two things that had played so well in the first BioShock.

The first, was the original game's linear sequences, passageways through Rapture's sights and sounds that allowed the player to absorb the history of the place and its people. This is best executed early in the sequel in an area called Ryan's Amusements, which is a theme park and museum that reintroduces and elaborates on Rapture's history, Ryan's philosophy and, as much of the place is defaced, on the views of those who rebelled against Ryan shortly before the first game began. Walking through this place makes evident the genius and madness of Rapture.

The second gameplay achievement in the first game was the dynamism of its combat, the offering to the player of numerous direct and indirect ways to fight. This was a key element, utilized when attempting to take down a Big Daddy. Players could fill a room with explosive traps, plan to electrify water when a Big Daddy might rush through it, and then begin shooting. The new game makes these tactics all the more available, thanks to the ability to hack from afar and with projectile-based trap ammo. The game requires this kind of play when a player prepares to take down a Big Daddy. It also requires it of them when the alert sounds that Big Sister is coming in for an attack. And, in a twist, it forces this kind of planned combat when a player has taken their own Little Sister to a corpse full of Adam energy. Placing her next to the body is prelude to setting the room up to defend against Splicer attack. Give her the signal to begin and they swarm. You have to keep her safe until she drains the energy. Then you can decide whether she is rescued or harvested. These types of planned offensive and defensive combat work so well, the designers of the new game clearly relishing the opportunity to let the player strategize and orchestrate organized chaos.

Earlier demos and hype for BioShock 2 showed off the ability to walk outside on the sea floor, and much has been made of the game's placement 10 years later in the timeline from the first. I did indeed walk on the sea floor in the new game, and while it was a beautiful sight, the sequence lasted too briefly for me to recognize any significant gameplay change it introduces. The plot is mostly still a mystery to me now, as it is intentionally unclear just why and how the player's Big Daddy, one of the original line, has been revived nor how some of the supporting characters who appear really relate to each other.

I started playing BioShock 2 worried that the inspired execution of the first BioShock would consign a sequel to being a pale imitation. It seems, though, that I had underestimated the room for technical improvement and gameplay refinement. I see little sign of re-invention and a lot of signs of love and polish. That love could smother, that fealty to the past could still render this game as superfluous. But in the early going, I am happily immersed in Rapture again, joyfully mystified as to what its inhabitants are up to, pleased with the way it plays and wanting to play more.

Eurogamer: Jordan Thomas Interview

Eurogamer: Let's start with the sense that there was this quite vicious backlash to the first game - are you interested in catering in that, or are you too busy making the game you want to make, and it doesn't matter what those guys think?

Jordan Thomas: I just cannot get through my day if I let the internet have a say, frankly. We have high enough standards for what we think BioShock means. Both myself and Melissa [Miller, senior producer], we worked on the first game, it is really ourselves that we have to convince. The experience of the first game was so subjective that if you talked to a hundred different people and asked them, "sooooooooo, what should be the primary features of BioShock 2?" they will tell you a hundred different f***ing things. Probably involving riding seals to freedom and so forth.

BioShock 2 specifically started out as "okay, what did BioShock 1 not do? What was not as good as it could have been?" I wanted to tell a very personal story, a kind of family conflict between three people - through the lens of Rapture, a kind of child's eye view on this magnificent city, and to show the contrast between the philosophy of rational self-interest that was embodied by Andrew Ryan and was critical to establishing the setting, and the sort of ethos of self-sacrifice that Sofia Lamb is bringing to bear. Now that we have that context, it felt like there was room for some interesting drama that comes very much from these polar extremes, and the conflicting forces between them, and the player is caught between those two impulses.

Beyond that, we had this goal to improve the game as a shooter. It felt like the first game - the story was very solid, very happy with that, the options for customising your character were also compelling, maybe not as deep as they could have been, so our goal for BioShock 2 was to celebrate your free will, I guess, both as a player and as a kind of partial author this time. That means giving you a lot more options to specialise, and it means giving you a lot more control over the narrative, in a way that didn't make sense for the first game, either in the commentary layer or in the broad 'how the hell do we get this game done, what does BioShock actually mean' questions we were answering the first time around.

Eurogamer: You're a designer who's specialised previously in scary dark places. Whereas a lot of people have looked at BioShock 1 and complained, "oh, it's just more dark FPS corridors", for you is that more of an opportunity than a limitation - a chance to hone those tricks of terror and atmosphere you're known for?

Jordan Thomas: That's a really good question, and one that I've been contemplating lately. I actually see BioShock as an opportunity for me to branch out from traditional horror. And the reason for that is that I see it more as a tragedy. We've made a number of choices as designers for BioShock that you are so empowered as an agent in this world that physical vulnerability, which I've exploited in prior games, is not one of the chief attributes of this series at all. You are still fighting overwhelming odds, you are still in a deeply atmospheric place and you have limited information, and those are my tools here.

But it's kind of more of a psychological warfare. My intent this time around is to inspire moral terror. Because you have free will, and because you are so central. My hope is that you become aware of that, and are creeped out by it rather than [adopts Mickey Mouse voice] "Oh God, they're going to jump on me" scares and so forth.

There are still long, spooky sections of BioShock 2, which we have deliberately engineered as pace-breakers, but I don't think they're the focus of the game in the same way as something like Condemned or Silent Hill. It is more of a kind of parable, which you decide the meaning of. And my goal in the second game has been only to augment that sense of tragedy, but also to move you to high action and adrenaline back to speculative sections that are purely about atmosphere.

BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

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