official Bioshock Infinite

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Just bought the game today, and it's pretty fun so far. Very much feels like the original, just in a different environment.

I have to say, though, it seems like they took the route of attempting to make it easier -- doesn't seem like they're going to be much backtracking as it (seems to me, at least so far) very linear. Also disappointed it's only quick save -- no way to save progress. That's a pain in the rear for me given how little time I have to play -- if I don't get to a checkpoint it'll blow.

Auto-Save is what you meant I believe, I would kill for a Quick-Save option, as that would let me save anywhere.

I just do not know how a modern PC game cannot have Quick-Save when it has been such a part of PC gaming for so long now blows my mind. That screams the console version was way more important to them IMHO. I would like the option just to replay certain sequences and see if I can do it better.

[Victor Rambo]

Finished it yesterday. Loved it.

One thing i didn't like that you can have only 2 weapons at a time.

[Victor Rambo]

I just came across this old 2011 gameplay video and it is well worth a watch for anyone who has completed the game. It shows how much things got chopped and changed by the time they released the game.

I think how they showed the bit where she opens a tear into 1980s is much better here.

!

Also watch this one.

[Noir Angel]

The place is real. Most of the times you are in that office/apartment,  they are doing flashbacks or hallucinations, but that is his apartment where he lived after his wife passed away... Or it's his office that he had to start living in after his wife passed away and he fell into depression and serious debt due to gambling.

*SPOILER LINKS*

TimeLine

Character TimeLine

[Edit: Tagged for spoilers. -Anthony]

You're right and wrong. The appartment is real, as (seemingly) was the gambling debt, however the gambling debt is not the reason for him going for Elizabeth. The Luteces brought Booker to Columbia to try and erase all of Comstock's evil it has nothing to do with paying Booker's gambling debts.

The Bioshock Wiki is a good source of information on plot related items.

[Anthony Tosie Veteran]

Auto-Save is what you meant I believe, I would kill for a Quick-Save option, as that would let me save anywhere.

I just do not know how a modern PC game cannot have Quick-Save when it has been such a part of PC gaming for so long now blows my mind. That screams the console version was way more important to them IMHO. I would like the option just to replay certain sequences and see if I can do it better.

Yes, sorry, auto-save only is what I meant. It seems they took the same step back Crysis 2 took after the original Crysis had a quick save following complaints about FarCry not having one.

I just don't get why there's no quick save (or whatever you want to call it). The original Bioshock had it on consoles, and there were limited save slots along with autosaving (which was about as frequent as it is in Infinite). Dishonored and Portal 2 have it on consoles, too.

[Noir Angel]

Moving to checkpoint style saving schemes seems to be getting more common across the gaming industry in general and it's really annoying. I'm not against having it, some people will screw up and forget to save, what annoys me is when there's no manual option to save.

[threetonesun]

My guess is there was an issue with event scripting and quick saves. I mean, there aren't a lot of moments when nothing is happening, or at least not enough to take the time to add in a quick save system.

Plus, it makes you live with your choices, which makes sense in context.

[Noir Angel]

Not really, the choices you make don't even stack up like they did in the previous 2 games. They're irrelevant footnotes.

They're using the same gaming engine as was used in Bioshock and Bioshock 2 generally. I don't see any real improvements to the AI, certainly not enough changes that would necessitate the removal of user defined saving. It's a design decision, not a decision of necessity.

[threetonesun]

Not really, the choices you make don't even stack up like they did in the previous 2 games. They're irrelevant footnotes.

They're using the same gaming engine as was used in Bioshock and Bioshock 2 generally. I don't see any real improvements to the AI, certainly not enough changes that would necessitate the removal of user defined saving. It's a design decision, not a decision of necessity.

Ah, I hadn't made it to the end yet.

So, yes, a design decision, although it seems like the checkpoints are relatively close. I've been quitting at random and never had to repeat much.

[Noir Angel]

Ah, I hadn't made it to the end yet.

So, yes, a design decision, although it seems like the checkpoints are relatively close. I've been quitting at random and never had to repeat much.

Well if you play the game quickly they are. First time through I played it slowly and explored :p

[Noir Angel]

Also, I'm interested as to why some say the graphics are crap. I think the game looks amazing considering the age of the engine

[Circaflex]

Also, I'm interested as to why some say the graphics are crap. I think the game looks amazing considering the age of the engine

I agree, the graphics to me are just fine. I think its an over exaggeration from those complaining, graphics dont necessarily mean everything. Sure they help make the game much more immersive, but if the story is sub-par i could care less how pretty the game looks, ie Crysis 3 (still havent finished it as I got pretty bored).

BSI's graphics couldve been better but they arent really anything to downplay.

[Noir Angel]

For me the Crysis games are a testament to what happens if you set your stall out for nothing more than looks. They look amazing but are boring as hell

[BajiRav]

I played Bioshock and never got around to playing Bioshock 2. I've been hearing about Bioshock Infinite a lot and want to give it a try but wondering if I should play Bioshock 2 first? :/

(not read the thread, sorry :blush:)

[shakey]

You're right and wrong. The appartment is real, as (seemingly) was the gambling debt, however the gambling debt is not the reason for him going for Elizabeth. The Luteces brought Booker to Columbia to try and erase all of Comstock's evil it has nothing to do with paying Booker's gambling debts.

The Bioshock Wiki is a good source of information on plot related items.

Sure it does.

The debt is the reason he gave up his daughter in the first place. If he had no debt, he would have had no reason to give his daughter to the Male Lutece. They then take him from his reality, do something with his memory that makes him think that now his mission is to bring back a girl to wipe away the debt, instead of how it originally went down, where he was giving them the girl to wipe away the debt.  Comstock had proposed that he would wipe away the debt with the handing over of his other self's daughter.

[threetonesun]

I played Bioshock and never got around to playing Bioshock 2. I've been hearing about Bioshock Infinite a lot and want to give it a try but wondering if I should play Bioshock 2 first? :/

(not read the thread, sorry :blush:)

No. I liked Bioshock 2, but it was mostly just a side story. I think you'll appreciate Infinite more if you've played Bioshock 1, which you have, so give it a shot.

[threetonesun]

Sure it does.

The debt is the reason he gave up his daughter in the first place. If he had no debt, he would have had no reason to give his daughter to the Male Lutece. They then take him from his reality, do something with his memory that makes him think that now his mission is to bring back a girl to wipe away the debt, instead of how it originally went down, where he was giving them the girl to wipe away the debt.  Comstock had proposed that he would wipe away the debt with the handing over of his other self's daughter.

I don't think they do anything to his memory, it's explained with Chen Lin (and by Lutece) that ending up in the wrong dimension is a royal brain screw, all they had to do was tell him that Elizabeth was the girl who would wipe away the debt, and Booker didn't know any better.

[shakey]

I don't think they do anything to his memory, it's explained with Chen Lin (and by Lutece) that ending up in the wrong dimension is a royal brain screw, all they had to do was tell him that Elizabeth was the girl who would wipe away the debt, and Booker didn't know any better.

Wasn't sure if it was that or something else. I vaguely remember them saying something along those lines. As well as the line they say, " <span class="st">The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create <em>memories</em> where none exist</span>." I believe that may have something to due with it. If they brought him from a time just before he gave away his daughter, or even before he had a daughter, it would be easy for it to then follow the same path that we played. Because the Booker we play as, doesn't even remember what the name Anna goes to.

[threetonesun]

Wasn't sure if it was that or something else. I vaguely remember them saying something along those lines. As well as the line they say, " <span class="st">The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create <em>memories</em> where none exist</span>." I believe that may have something to due with it. If they brought him from a time just before he gave away his daughter, or even before he had a daughter, it would be easy for it to then follow the same path that we played. Because the Booker we play as, doesn't even remember what the name Anna goes to.

It had to have been after, given the mark on his hand. Mind you, you saw what happened to Chen Lin after one switch of dimensions, it's implied in the story that Booker has done this whole thing many, many times (see the heads/tails counter Lutece(s) keeps and the fact that Elizabeth says she waited for 50 years), so the fact that he has no idea what's going on every time he gets pulled in is somewhat believable.

[shakey]

It had to have been after, given the mark on his hand. Mind you, you saw what happened to Chen Lin after one switch of dimensions, it's implied in the story that Booker has done this whole thing many, many times (see the heads/tails counter Lutece(s) keeps and the fact that Elizabeth says she waited for 50 years), so the fact that he has no idea what's going on every time he gets pulled in is somewhat believable.

True. Almost forgot about the mark on his hand. My bad.

[Noir Angel]

Not quiet. It's not implied that Booker is hopping from reality to another, what's happening is that there are some realities in which he became Comstock and some in which he stayed Booker, it's all to do with the moment he had the baptism. The storyline follows along the lines that for every decision acted out by everybody in existence you branch off into different realities in which each connotation plays itself out, which is why there are things that are different in each reality

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I am still only about 30% - 40% through the game itself based on the walkthrough I referenced to find out how far along I am in the game, and it truly feels very laborious and tedious. I am not having that much fun. This article from Kotaku pretty much sums up perfectly why this is my experience thus far.

The Problem With BioShock Infinite's Combat

Here is an except from that article...

Of course, any combat encounter is going to be a tad subjective?if you're amazing at BioShock Infinite's combat, or have the levels and encounters memorized, you may well have a better time of it than I did. But upon my first playthrough, a fight would usually play out like this:

• I see some guards walking up ahead. They don't see me yet.
  
• Okay, they saw me! And now everyone is shooting at me.
  
• I trigger "Murder of Crows" and make them stop shooting me for one second. I kill as many as I can.
  
• Now there are more of them, so I trigger Murder of Crows again, and run forward to the left.
  
• Somewhere a turret has seen me; I hear its signature ringtone and know I'm about to lose some health. Maybe it's a flying mosquito or maybe it's a regular turret, but now I'm getting pegged and I can't tell from where.
  
• There are people everywhere, yelling, and I just sort of fire off Murder of Crows in a direction and shoot where I see the "vulnerable" signifier.
  
• I can't figure out why I'm being shot, then I realize there was a dude standing behind me and shooting me while my attention was focused forward. I die, and hop back into the level from a waypoint.
  
• I locate the turret, so I take cover and try to destroy it while getting shot by a bunch of other people.
  
• Elizabeth tosses me some ammo/salt.
  
• I jump onto a skyline and keep getting nailed by bullets?I have no idea where the enemies are, but I rely on the auto-aim from skylines to find someone to shoot at.
  
• I land and use Murder of Crows to freeze/kill more guys.
  
• There's still one guy somewhere in the level, so the combat music keeps playing? I can hear him talking but can't find him.
  
• I do a skyline run to find the last guy, and as I'm doing so I think, "Oh wow, this is a neat level, I didn't even notice!"
  
• I find the guy and, just as I kill him, Elizabeth offers me some more ammo. But then he's dead, so her offer is rescinded. D'oh!
  

And that's pretty much that.

The Atmosphere and art direction? Brilliant. Underlying themes and message? Phenomenal. Combat? Just okay. For a first person shooter, which is at the end of the day the genre Infinite falls under, this is a HUGE shortcoming IMHO.

As such, and perhaps my opinion will change once I experience the much talked about ending, I just am completely let down with the game. Especially thanks to all of the praise it has received to date. I am actually considering going back to Tomb Raider. I stopped playing it to play Infinite, and I enjoyed it so much more from a gameplay perspective.

Perhaps I should state for those newer members who may not know, I am a somewhat older gamer. I am going to turn 40 fairly soon in the grand scheme of life. As a result, I have, and still continue, to read the written word. These archaic things known as books some of you younger readers may or may not have heard of. Because of my fondness for the written word, I have always been of the opinion video game stories are mediocre at best. In fact, the original Bioshock is what made me believe they were/are mediocre, prior to that I thought they were atrocious, with one or two games being the very rare exception to my belief. I am old school in regards to the fact that I play video games first and foremost for the experience of playing video games. I enjoy the game-play itself.

So a great game on all fronts except for the aspect I personally play games for, and that is the gameplay, is an okay game by my standards. Not the second-coming as others would have me believe by their reviews.

And sure, people are entitled to their opinion, this is what makes the world go round, I just expected so, so much more. It may very well go down as one of the bigger disappointments in gaming history for myself.

[soniqstylz]

It had to have been after, given the mark on his hand. Mind you, you saw what happened to Chen Lin after one switch of dimensions, it's implied in the story that Booker has done this whole thing many, many times (see the heads/tails counter Lutece(s) keeps and the fact that Elizabeth says she waited for 50 years), so the fact that he has no idea what's going on every time he gets pulled in is somewhat believable.

It's not so much that our Booker has done this many times, it's that the Lutece's have been through so many dimensions with various Bookers doing this.

"He DOESN'T row."

Remember, at the end, Elizabeth can see in the various lighthouses, and each time Songbird stops Booker. Until this Booker figures out that he needs to stop Comstock from existing -- which was the first time that variable had been introduced. Which (we think) made the reality possible at the end credits in some alternate universe.

But, in reality, I could be wrong. Well, in THIS reality.

Somewhere I got that one right.

[cryptonym]

I love its climate! It has really nice storyline and soundtrack! I think PC graphics is a little bit better than on consoles

[francescob]

This game wasn't infinite at all! I never felt so disappointed since I read the neverending story!