“You, the fans, have been incredibly patient with us. You shared your hopes and wishes for the game with us, and you kept the faith.

“Today, I’m happy to announce that the game has gone gold. What that means is that it has been approved by both Sony and Microsoft  to be sent to the manufacturing guys to load up fleets of trucks with BioShock Infinite and be driven to a store near you on March 26th.”

While Levine has noted that he can’t “demand that you play the game, I can promise you, however, that once you have, it will be an experience you won’t soon forget.”

And honestly, how many developers can promise that these days?

Bioshock Infinite will be releasing worldwide on March 26th for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Well, thankfully, someone asked Irrational Games’ boss Ken Levine the same question during a Reddit AMA session. Here’s how Ken responded: “I think it actually has a lot in common with the first game,” he began, talking about how not so different it is in terms of themes from the first BioShock entry. “I’ve said in a bunch of interviews that we had to step back when we started working on this game and say “What makes a BioShock game?”. If it was Rapture, there would be no Irrational BioShock game coming out now.”

He continued: “After a lot of soul searching, we determined it was a) The game takes place in a world that is both grounded in reality and fantastical at the same time. That world needs to be more detailed than any other game world out there.”

And of course, who can forget the combat? “b) The combat has to have a strong improvisational nature, with a suite of player tools that lets everyone approach combat differently.”

Levine was also asked if Irrational would make BioShock sequels if Infinite were successful. As expected, he gave a pretty vague answer.

“In terms of more Irrational BioShock games, it’s way too early to say,” he said. “It will ALWAYS be dependent upon us having an idea that we’re in love with and excites us. IF we don’t have that, I suspect it would be another studio making one, if there was one to make. But I can’t imagine doing it if we weren’t in love with the idea.”

In the same AMA session, Levine also talked about Infinite’s replay value and length. Read the full story here.

“We knew that was going to be incredibly challenging, but the more we thought about it, either the more excited or the more terrified we got,” said Levine while speaking with Eurogamer.

“There’s not a lot of great AI companions,” he said. “I really think Alyx was the last one. It’s okay. People are generally okay with it – Skyrim is a great game, but their expectations are fairly low. We knew if we were going to have the player have a voice like we wanted to because we had done so many cyphers, we wanted somebody for him to interact with.

“One thing AIs generally don’t do is react to what’s around them,” Levine continued. “They don’t observe what’s around them. They have no interest in what’s around them.

“So we spent a lot of time making Elizabeth notice the world and react to the world and engage with the world. That was heightened by the fact she’s been locked up. But even so, people are always looking at stuff. When you walk down the street you don’t walk down the street like a robot, which is generally what companion AIs do.

“So we had to seed the world with things she was interested in and things she could interact with. We had to seed her with various emotional states that are primarily an overlay on the animation she does. And she has sounds to go along with all of those things. Making her present in the world was one of the most difficult things and one of the most important things.”

BioShock: Infinite releases in March next year. Stay tuned for more updates.

Ken Levine has mentioned in a video interview with Joystiq that he is not afraid of any controversial topics, nor is he interested in a topic just because it is controversial.

If he wants a story to tell he will do it, he told in a video interview with Joystiq.

“For my own personal tastes, I’m not afraid of any topic or I wouldn’t walk away from any topic because it was controversial,” he said. “And I wouldn’t run towards any topic because it was controversial. There’s a story I want to tell.

“Originally, the conflict in [Infinite] was one between technologists and luddites, and it just wasn’t very interesting for us. The story didn’t go anywhere, because there wasn’t a lot of historical precedence for it and it didn’t really resonate. And it evolved, and it kept evolving many, many times.”

Bioshock Infinite comes out on March 2013 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Thanks, VG247.

The first tweet was, as one user put it, “well played”:

“RT @tha_don_101: @IGLevine can you clear up whether or not Bioshock Infinite will have multiplayer modes? —Nope.”

At first people were unsure whether Levine was saying it wouldn’t have multiplayer or simply that he couldn’t clear the matter up.

However, Levine clarified in a later tweet:

“RT @wolverine11111: @IGLevine Does that mean nope it won’t or nope you can’t clear that issue up? — No multi.”

Not that anyone’s very upset by that, judging by the general response on Twitter. Many have stated that one of the reasons for Bioshock: Infinite’s troubled development was the planned multiplayer modes that affected the team’s productivity. Either way, now that that’s been done away with, they can focus exclusively on the single-player experience.

Bioshock: Infinite is currently slated for release on February 23rd 2013 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Source: TheGameEffect

We thought we’d dissect the trailer second by second, to help digest such a hearty meal.

0:19 – So begins the trailer, once the branding dies down we are sat in a rowing boat in the middle of a choppy ocean, with a lighthouse in the background. Gee, I wonder what that reminds us all of? Okay, it’s aesthetically miles apart from the opening sequence of the original Bioshock but it’s clearly a deliberate nod back to Jack’s first steps into Rapture.

0:21 – In front of us are two other people in the boat, one rowing facing towards us, face obscured by what seems to be a female  facing away. Who could this be? Another Pinkerton agent, perhaps?

0:21 – Through a character’s eyes, we see a box inscribed with ‘Property of Booker DeWitt’. We are presumably Booker at this point and again this box is obviously a nod back to Bioshock.

0:23 – In the box is a rather sexy looking pistol, like a chunky luger. Beside the gun are several pictures and what might be a Skyhook, with a birdcage inscription. Two more pictures are lining the case, one an advert for ‘Monument Island’ depicting an angelic figure, the second a girl in a white dress, perhaps a young Elizabeth.

0:24 – A voice over states ‘bring us the girl and wipe away the debt’, alluding to Booker’s task of rescuing Elizabeth. It seems Booker is quoting his task, referring to himself in the third person.

0:28 – A stunning opening vista from within Columbia, with a rather sexy depth of field and delicious colour palette.

0:29 – A golden sign says ‘Welcome to Momument Island’, the same advert as in Booker’s case. In the background is a huge golden statue of the angelic figure.

0:30 – Booker says ‘the details illude me now. But the details wouldn’t change a goddamn thing’. This suggests Booker may’ve been in Columbia for a good while at this point, or at least some major events to render beforehand insignificant.

0:31 – We see Battleship Bay, a beachy family resort with huge cannons in the background.

0:33 – Next up is the Aerodrome and a Hotel named Soldiers Field, with a very prominent promenade (or boardwalk for y’all Americans) in the foreground.

0:34 – A live demonstration by Bettermen’s Autobodies of “The Handyman”, advertised as allowing the user to “live pain free everymore”, “a modern miracle” and “one simple procedure”. The Handyman himself obscures the bottom of the advertisement, but it seems its purpose is to act as a means of movement for the less bodily abled, accentuated by the ‘before’ and ‘after’ depictions of a hospitalised man becoming mobile again.

0:35 – A mechanical, electric horsey followed by the interior of an ice cream parlour.

0:37 – We see a crowd of men and women all dressed in long white robes. Is this some sort of cult or following? Its members appear to be bowing or at least praying before Booker. Is he their God or leader?

0:39 – Elizabeth appears for the first time, wearing different clothes to the ones we’ve seen before, very much more like a late-Victorian schoolgirl than previously.

0:45 –  Is this a new, fire-based enemy? Looks to be soaking up a lot of damage. Looks like a pressure-cooker, gas-powered Big Daddy. This doesn’t appear to be a Handyman, Motorised Patriot, Boys of Silence or a Siren.

0:52 – Skyhook can be used as gruesome weapon, seems like it may only allow contextual kills.

0:54 – Plasm- I mean Vigors look even cooler than before, depicting much more detailed and malformed effects on Booker’s hands.

0:57 – Jumping from the Skyhook seems to facilitate powerful takedowns.

1:02 – Environmental hook objects seem to exist throughout Columbia, so Skyhooks can be used beyond just skyline.

1:05 – Is that Vox populi gunship?

1:08 – The Murder of Crows vigor in action, seems to be rather powerful.

1:10 – A Handyman in action, far more mobile than Big Daddy, packs an electrical punch too.

1:14 – The fire-based vigor is truly vile, but also brilliant. That’s flesh burned to the bone. Perhaps vigors can be dual-wielded?

1:15 – Another new enemy, seemingly crow-based and carrying a coffin on its back. Looks quite like an executioner.

1:17 – Is this the Songbird helping Booker?

1:18 – This silhouetted Boys of Silence looks utterly terrifying and powerful to boot.

I think we all agree that 2011 has been a fantastic year in gaming. We’ve gotten the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3, Gears of War 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham City, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and so much more. BioShock creator Ken Levine believes that 2011 has not just been a good year for gaming, but probably the best in a long time.

“[It’s] a year to be proud of,” he told Eurogamer. Skyrim has been his favourite game this year.

“I always make time for games,” he continued.

“That’s important. If you’re not playing games you’re compromising your ability as a game developer to make good games.

“It’s been an interesting year. It’s the best year since – and I’m not just saying this because of my game – 2007. A lot of great games, like Portal, came out that year. It’s the best year in a very long time.

“There have been a ton of games I’ve been playing. I play more games right now mostly because there’s just so much good stuff to play.”

“[2011] is a year to be proud of our industry,” he continued. “It’s a year to be proud of the Uncharted guys. It’s a year to be proud of Epic. It’s a year to be proud of the Call of Duty guys. It’s a year to be proud of everybody because people are delivering this year in a way the industry hasn’t delivered in a very long time.”

Do you agree? Tell us in your comments below.

Check out the new trailer for Bioshock Infinite that was shown at the VGA 2011. The trailer shows some new footage from the game. It looks awesome as you would expect, considering Ken Levine is behind it.

The game got a lot of award at E3 2011, and is one of the GOTY contenders for 2012.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Irrational Games’ creative head, Ken Levine revealed that Bioshock Infinite looked exactly like Bioshock 1 at one point in time. That prompted them to change the look to give it a distinct style. ‘For a long time, it looked like ‘BioShock 1 in the sky,” he said to Gamasutra.

When they came to the realization that it looked exactly like Bioshock 1, they implemented drastic measures.

“That’s when we came to the conclusion we had to do some aggressive change to make it a distinct look,” said Art director, Nate Wells.

“It was uncomfortable for us. Ken started literally pushing back the clouds — ‘bluer, bluer!’ We were really uncomfortable with it, our initial reaction is it’s a little bit cartoonish…. but when we saw it in context, that was our a-ha moment.”

“That searching and that failure was absolutely essential. By spending some time muddling around… by failing, you find it. That was an idea that I don’t think that we could have landed on; we wandered to it. You need that galvanizing idea, but you can’t… just do nothing until you have it.” said lead artist Shawn Robertson.

Bioshock Infinite had a very impressive E3 showing, and you can check out the gameplay video below. The game releases next year on the PC, PS3 and the Xbox 360.

Source

Bioshock Infinite was one of the best games at display during last month’s E3. Creative director, Ken Levine surprised many by taking stage during Sony’e E3 presser announcing PS Move support for Infinit and a brand new Bioshock Infinite game for the Vita.

In an interesting interview  with IGN, Ken Levin has shared his thoughts on what gamers should expect from Infinite with Move and Bioshock Vita.

On the Move support for Infinite:

What I wanted to say is, if you don’t care about that, don’t worry about that. You don’t have to touch that. You won’t even notice it’s there. If you want to try it, hey, it’s there, great. And my hope is that we’ll succeed in the experiment and people will like it. But if they don’t like it, they’ll never know it’s there. And that’s cool. My baseline for this experiment was not compromising for the people who aren’t into it. That’s just not going to work. When you experiment you have to control the experiment. I think there’s a real opportunity here, not just in control but in a couple of other things. But for me it’s a creative risk, and I’m making sure that it’s something we can make into a creative experiment and put the firewall around it. Hopefully it’s awesome and people engage on it, but if it’s not for a particular taste then the rest of the game is firewalled from that experience.

On the new PS Vita game:

That’s a new game. That is going to be strange and surprising to people, in the same way. I think when we launched Infinite, people said, “Wait, what, what are you doing?” I think we always want to surprise people. If I’m just saying, “Here’s BioShock 1 on Vita”… Let’s say we potentially do, you don’t need us to do that, somebody could make that happen if they wanted that to happen.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.