There’s some exciting yet controversial news for Bioshock fans! There’s an all-new game on the horizon (woo!) but it’s not set underwater, not about Rapture, and well, seems to have next-to-nothing to do with Bioshock 1 or 2…
The trailer below (courtesy of PC Gamer) starts off with what seems to be the only reference to the original games throughout, but mere seconds later we are thrown into disarray as the main character of the clip is suddenly grabbed by what appears to be a giant bio-mechanical machine (no, not a Big Daddy) and thrown out of a window! What happens after that? Well, you’ll just have to watch this awesome trailer to see for yourself!
I’m a huge fan of the Bioshock series, and with the sequel to the first game having been released only earlier this year I had no expectations of seeing another release from this franchise for at least another year, so seeing this trailer was a very nice surprise, even if I was a little bit confused about the setting for the game so far.
How the designers decided to go from deep underwater in the chaotic city of a secret society gone wrong to a huge airship city called Columbia way up in the sky is beyond me, but I for one am excited to see how they are going to pull it off gameplay-and-visuals-wise! Assuming that plasmids may still be the main gameplay element of the game, I’m expecting to be able to use telekinesis to pick enemies up and throw them overboard into a long free-fall to death or bounce them off the sides of the hot air balloons keeping the city afloat. Of course there will be a lot more to the game than just that, but if I can simply do that then I’ll definitely be happy!
I just hope the hardcore Bioshock fans don’t immediately boycott the game because of something as trivial as it not being set underwater anymore. To be honest, since we’ve already had two very deep stories about the city of Rapture (no pun intended) I think it should be fantastic to have some brand new and totally fresh scenarios and gameplay opportunities thrown into the mix thanks to the new setting and likely a new storyline. The game is apparently set for a 2012 release though, so that’s a damn long while to wait. Let’s hope it’s going to be as good as we might hope for!
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
Last night I finished Firewatch. It’s a first-person mystery game, being rudely dubbed a ‘walking simulator’ by some of the reviews I’ve seen elsewhere. While it’s true, the game has you fulfilling various tasks in a forest in which you navigate solely by hiking, that description completely ignores the beautifully told story and the reason you are there at all. Having completed it, I want to recommend it to everyone because it’s fantastic. I also would say that the less you know the better, so don’t read the rest of this review, just go and get it.
I’m not sure what to tell you about FF7. Simply put, it’s one of my all-time favourite games, and the hordes of fans it has makes me feel like a bit of a cliché to even include it in this feature. But I have to. It changed my life, I think. Before this, I had not played a game with such a deep and engaging story, an epic tale about a host of very likable characters, all unique and fleshed out with interesting back stories. It’s just wonderful.
Well, fuck. A FPS horror game, set in a mental asylum where all the patients are violent hyper crazed lunatics, and you are a guy armed only with a night vision video camera and can’t fight back? Better get Clarkie to play that shit.