Bioshock, Bioshock, Bioshock

Now, I've kind of made it obvious in the past that I'm not Bioshock's (as a series) biggest fan.  I wasn't really impressed with the first, so much so that I didn't get the second and even though some people I really trust swear by the games, I just...take a few issues with some of the design philosophy, we'll say.  I've probably covered it in more detail at some point, but even if not, this really isn't the venue for that.  Still, despite my ambivalence towards Bioshock, any news of the next iteration(s) in the series is big news and this is certainly news that I want to share because of how wacky it is on the surface.  Whether or not I like a game or a series, I can certainly respect a game or series that includes a robotic George Washington with a Minigun as an uncommon (not unique, I think) enemy.  Who wouldn't?

The term is "Heavy Hitter", and it's an enemy type that's intended to broaden the pool of foes you face in this third Bioshock game.  Ken Levine, head of Irrational Games, pointed in a phone interview that, with the previous games, you just faced a lot of Splicers with weapons, some with plasmids, or you went up against Big Daddies without a lot in between.  So with Infinite, they wanted to really get in a few more types of enemies that required different strategies and had different features to make them unique.  Robo-Washington is the second of four 'Heavy Hitters' that are planned for Bioshock Infinite, with the first being the "Handyman" from the first reveal trailer.  I'm not sure where you go after Robot George Washington with a Minigun, but I know I'm at least a little more interested in looking into it now.

In other Bioshock news, I'm sure we're all surprised that the whole 'special Move wand peripheral' that was 'planned' for Bioshock:  Infinite was a miscommunication and won't be happening.  At least, if you heard about the thing which I hadn't until today.  Or if I did, I thought it was such bull that I just sort of omitted it from my memory.  Either way, such a device does not and will not exist and it boggles the mind as to why someone thought it would, much less -how- such a thing would work.  I guess it could've been a specifically Bioshock Infinite branded Move 'Battle Rifle' which....okay now that I say it, it doesn't sound like too bad of an idea.  Everyone who was going to get a Battle Rifle (well, mostly everyone) has likely done so by now between Killzone 3 and Resistance 3, so it wouldn't have sold too well, likely, but it would be a neat thing to see.  I have to wonder just what weapon they might model it after...or, rather, I don't.  Because it doesn't exist, nor will it.

Still, there is yet more news about Bioshock and Ken Levine, but this bit is, for me at least, a little more appreciated since he actually talks about the still unamed Bioshock Vita Project.  "Look, we're working on it." is pretty much the exact thing I wanted to hear in conjunction with the project and while I don't need much more than that, there is a bit more to it.  Again, while I don't care for the Bioshock games (though I admit I will give them another try) I can't deny that they're not good games and big games at that, so having one on my plucky little handheld of choice is only a boon to us all.  The thing is, Levine doesn't want to talk a whole lot about the game, but it's for a good reason.

"I ideally wouldn't have talked about the Vita game when I did. It was understandably important that, you know, Sony wanted us to share that information.  I think it's important that people know that a lot of big developers are very committed to the Vita and making that successful, but generally I like to go out with something to show."

Basically, he's saying that it's important to let everyone know that there's support behind this platform but, in a perfect world, he would've with-held the announcement of the game until it was fleshed out some and he could show off a trailer of it.  It's admirable and I respect the guy for that because I know what he means, insomuch as he doesn't want to just be a big talker.  Because it's always, always, always more effective to show off something to prove it's real, rather than talk something up so much without anything to back it up.  If only Peter Molyneux could figure out that principle, we'd all be playing much better games from Lionhead Studio.  Or...at least we might've, before he left to make his own new studio.  Again, that's neither here nor there, but I felt like bringing it up at least a little bit, considering I've had a couple posts about Molyneux in the past.

Still, Bioshock Vita is still a thing, and it's still not a port of Infinite or any of the other two Bioshock titles.  Levine promises that it's going to be a wholly different game which is something I imagine he intends to back up.  I can only imagine what this means; I should hope it won't stray from the First Person Shooter roots that it's created for itself, considering that's kind of a selling point for the Vita - being able to actually, comfortably, handle FPS games.  Still, I guess we won't see until Levine officially shows it off, which I should hope would be soon.  Maybe even this coming E3?  Seems like it's the only thing between now and then and I'd hope there would be at least some gameplay to show off by then.  In any event, this has been a fun post to write and it's convinced me that at some point, I should really sort of extrapolate on my misgivings with the original Bioshock.  I'll do that at some point, but in the meantime as an added bit of fun, go ahead and count up how many times I said Bioshock in this post because I assure you it was way more than I intended.