Rapture doesn’t even exist in Irrational Games’ “BioShock Infinite”

You read that headline right. The BioShock title in development by Irrational Games doesn’t involve the underwater city of Rapture. At all. Instead, we’ll be exploring a floating city in the sky known as Columbia, set in 1912, 47 years before that underwater New Year’s Eve catastrophe. After a launch celebrated by the American public, Columbia has experienced some sort of an “international incident.” What that incident is, we don’t really know yet, but it has to have been pretty bad, since Columbia was forced to hide amongst the clouds. Based on what we know about Columbia and its version of “American exceptionalism,” which seems to have an emphasis on interesting racial views and a very extreme form of patriotism that borders on complete xenophobia. You play as former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, and unlike the original game’s Jack Ryan, who was, for all intents and purposes, a pretty “blank”

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2K Games announces “Minerva’s Den” addition to “BioShock 2″ single-player

“Minerva’s Den,” a brand-new single-player adventure addition for BioShock 2, was confirmed by 2K Games today. It will be available for all versions of the game, and you’ll have to have the disc to play it. In Minerva’s Den, you’ll play as a brand-new character who is working with Bridgid Tenenbaum to bring down a dictator in the Minerva’s Den area of Rapture. This is a self-contained narrative that 2K president Christoph Hartmann considers a “fitting conclusion to the BioShock 2 saga.” In Minerva’s Den, you’ll explore Rapture Central Computing, wield new weaponry and a new Plasmid, and take on even more new Splicers. Adding to the fun, you’ll also face a new Big Daddy type and upgraded Security Bots that throw rockets and lightning bolts (ouch). No word on pricing or a release date yet.

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Massive Steam sale is going to empty your wallet this summer

If Steam were a physical store, you’d think it was having a fire sale. Steam’s “Perils of Summer” sale, going on now through July 4, puts a bunch of awesome downloadable titles on sale. Not only that, but a few titles will have special one-day sales that might see a price discounted up to 90%. That’s a lot of missing price. Not that we mind, of course. Well over 300 titles are on sale, from Silent Hill Homecoming (currently $9.99) to a 2K Games pack that contains 27 games, including Borderlands, its expansion packs, BioShock and BioShock 2. Altogether, buying those titles new and the expansions would run you more than the price for all 27 games – $89.99. So there’s some good deals out there. But the question is – are you going to wait for a price to drop even more, or is it time to act like

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Ten Reasons Why You Should Date a Female Gamer

Who says dating a girl gamer is a no-no? Tsk tsk! Here are ten reasons why dating a female gamer is a good thing & will only help your gamer cred. 10. Date Nights Made Simple. Every so often it’s nice to be treated to a night out on the town, however that doesn’t mean we’re not up for a night in. Order some tasty Chinese, have some beer and drinks in the fridge, and we’re all for gaming and movie all-nighters. You can make it fun by coming up with drinking games (Please drink responsibly!!) or making the loser do the dishes. Just have fun with it and make it an evening about spending time together. 9. Technically Capable. Female gamers know their way around the tech. We can set up a sound system, set schedules on the DVR, we know the difference between RCA, Component and HDMI cables.

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Quick Highlights of Take-Two First Quarter 2010 Financial Results Call

Besides the sad news of a Red Dead Delay, Take Two also took the time to reveal a little bit more about its game lineup for the rest of fiscal 2010. First off, we have roundabout dates for L.A. Noire, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Sid Meier’s Civilization V. I say “roundabout” because we just have a quarter for them – the fourth quarter. So sometime between August and October 31, we’ll be seeing those games. Maybe. It was also announced that one of these could get pushed to fiscal year 2011. Which ones? Not too sure. NHL and NBA 2K11 are also coming out that quarter. More Borderlands DLC was also announced. Based on the success of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, they will continue to publish DLC. In other news… BioShock 2 has sold over 3 million units to date. Take Two is planning to publish

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Toy Fair 2010

This was my first year being able to attend Toy Fair in New York City, so I was very excited as you could probably expect. Toy Fair is the opportunity where various toy companies, both big and small, come to showcase what they have and what they plan to release in the coming year. There’s a great variety from toys for kids to board games to collectable figures. It’s the perfect chance for the media and dealers to check out all of the new trends and upcoming toys. Taking up the entire Javits Center, it was one huge show and you really need a game plan to make your way through the show floors. I first decided to hit up the action figure area and I think this was the best choice as I probably visited just about every booth! First stop was NECAOnline, where I was first drawn in

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Review: BioShock 2

Welcome back to Rapture as the original Big Daddy searching for his Little Sister. Much has changed since the fall of Ryan and Atlas, with a new leader in place, kidnapping girls from coastal cities with her new toys, the Big Sisters. ESRB: M for Mature Genre: First Person Shooter Number of Players: One (2-10 in Multiplayer) Publisher: 2K Games Release Date: Feb 9, 2010 Buy it for the Xbox 360 from Amazon BUY Ah Rapture! Your 1950s posters, music and clothing still makes my heart skip a beat after all these years. It’s been nearly ten years since I was kindly asked to kill Andrew Ryan, then broke free of my chains and saved the Little Sisters from the twisted mind of Frank Fontaine, aka-Atlas. And now I am back, this time as the original Big Daddy companion, hoping to save my Little Sister Eleanor and all of the

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BioShock 2 Getting New Content in Its DL-Sea

2K Games announced today their plans to quickly update and expand BioShock 2 single and multiplayer modes via several downloadable content packs. The first of these is the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, available this March from Xbox Live Marketplace (for 360 and PC) for 400 Microsoft Points and from the PlayStation Network for £3.19 (Roughly $4.99, I’d wager). This expansion isn’t the only one, but it is only the first. Additional content packs will become available over the next few months. The Sinclair Solutions Test Pack contains a number of customization features that will allow players to further their character’s development in BioShock 2’s multiplayer modes and provide a deeper multiplayer experience. The pack includes: • Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards • New playable characters: Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca • 20 new trials (available at rank 41+) • A third weapon upgrade for each weapon •

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Bioshock 2 – Revelations

On Friday afternoon, I got the amazing opportunity to join a conference call/interview with the Bioshock 2 creative director Jordan Thomas, lead designer Zak McClendon, and lead environment artist Hoagy De La Plante from 2K Marin, as well as Digital Extreme’s MP Art Director Mat Tremblay and MP Lead Programmer Jesse Attard. Needless to say, this was an exciting call for me. I lapped up every interesting new fact they were willing to divulge, and I’m sharing the wealth with you. Mulitplayer There are 7 multiplayer modes (4 were added during the release delay!) Maximum 10 players per game NO co-op or LAN play Takes place 1 year before the first game New multiplayer exclusive plasmid, ARROW – allows players to zoom around New multiplayer exclusive plasmid, HOUDINI – allows players to turn invisible like the Houdini Splicers Single Player You will STILL have to fight Big Daddies Big Daddies are

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2K Kicks Off BioShock 2 Countdown with 3 Minute Trailer

Not only are you getting two extra characters for multiplayer, Blanche the Actress and Zigo the Fisherman, with a GameStop BioShock 2 pre-order, but 2K has something else to keep you busy between now and launch time. Specifically tonight, February 2. What do they have in store? Try a 3 minute, 15 second trailer for the game during the first commercial break during Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC. Sure, you have to watch fifteen minutes of Jimmy Fallon to see it (no offense if you love him, but he’s no Conan), but it should be worth it. When the day finally gets here, over 2,500 GameStop and Best Buy stores will be opening their doors at midnight to let you get access to Rapture as early as possible in your time zone.

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