Bioshock Infinite (IMAGE WARNING!!) Crossposted from Gaming due to Awesomeness and Importance

[Occulus]

I've crossposted this to GD so everyone can see how this industry has finally reached adulthood. The eye candy, the sheer beauty of this creation shouldn't be restricted just to the gaming group. Everyone deserves to at least get a look. This game, believe it or not, really is simply that good.

---

"Make yourself ready, pilgrim. The bindings are there as a safeguard.

Ascension in the count of FIVE... count of FOUR... THREE... TWO...

Ascension... Ascension...

Five thousand feet...

Ten thousand feet...

Fifteen thousand feet...

Hallelujah.





















































Ken Levine and everyone at 2K and Irrational are to be given a standing ovation for this stunning and absolutely gorgeous achievement. Infinite is actually better, and by far, than all of the prerelease hype of the past several years could possibly have led even the most jaded gamer to cynically believe could never be reached by the final product.

The reviews are not exaggerations. Bioshock Infinite is a masterpiece in nearly every sense of the word.

Hallelujah, indeed.

[Dash87]

1. Holy crap. I might pick this up. It's not a corridor shooter, is it?

Loving the art for this one. Also, is this an RPG?

[Occulus]

4. It's a single-player first-person shooter.

Not a corridor shooter in the traditional sense. Yes, there's a set path through the game, but it's so expansive and just massive in scope that it's very easy to forget that.

And the city itself is vast. Very very huge.

If your system can handle it, yes yes yes, get it.

[Katashi_itto]

26. Dear Lord, it's awesome!

[SidDithers]

2. Thanks for posting...

but I'll have to check out recommended specs for computing power needed.



Sid

[sharp_stick]

6. Here's the specs

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/pc-specifications-for-bioshock-infinite-announced/

The minimum isn't really all that over the top. I'm kind of surprised at that, it seems that whenever a new really cool game comes out I'm left trying to figure out a way to con my wife into letting me upgrade my machine again.

I think I'd really like to see this with DX11 and although my current card will do it I'll probably need a processor upgrade to make it work anywhere near smoothly.

MINIMUM

OS: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB free
Video Card: DirectX10 Compatible ATI Radeon HD 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT / Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics
Video Card Memory: 512 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
RECOMMENDED

OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit
Processor: Quad Core Processor
Memory: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 30 GB free
Video Card: DirectX11 Compatible, AMD Radeon HD 6950 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
Video Card Memory: 1024 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

[SidDithers]

19. Yeah, that's not as bad as I thought...

I'm OK on recommended, except for video. Laptop only has Mobility Radeon 5650, which is a big step down from the 6950.

At least it'll run.

Sid

[Occulus]

36. You should be able to play it on at least medium quality

I'd definitely recommend setting your resolution to lower than 1920x1080 to get a good framerate. I'm running Infinite on a GTX560 (quad core CPU, 8GB of RAM) at 1366x768 now, at maximum quality, and I'm getting a pretty consistent 60fps.

You'll want it to look as good as you can and still be comfortably playable. If the opening makes your jaw fall open once you ascend into the clouds, you know you have it just about right.

[Uncle Joe]

3. This does look like a beautiful and fascinating game.

My next game purchase was to be Skyrm but I will put this one on the list as well.

Thanks for the thread, Occulus.

[dogknob]

16. Skyrim is just groovy...

The graphics for the new Bioshock look amazing, but there's something a little more -- satisfying about a gun-free world. Besides, if your PC can handle the new Bioshock, it can probably handle Skyrim totally maxed-out with all of the add-on textures.





EDIT: ...and you get to be a frikkin' CAT if you want!

[Serve The Servants]

30. If you buy Skyrim

say goodbye to everything else in your life for a while. It is definitely one of the greatest games I have ever played.

[sharp_stick]

7. Oh no it's not that simple

The alternate reality is it's own world with Bioshock.

[Occulus]

8. It's more intended to be a distorted reflection of a particular time, I think

The setting is an exaggeration, even a caricature in places, of the early 1900s. That said, I found a calliope version of a very well-known 1980s song from a top-of-the-industry performer playing from a carousel on one of the boardwalks, if you can believe it. Great liberties are taken with history and social themes, but that's to be expected.

Pervading themes are nationalism, jingoism, and racism; nobody has completely clean hands in this story. I'd love to say more, but I just can't, because more detail would spoil it to a degree.

[Mike Daniels]

43. Re: music in the game

God only Knows performed in barbershop quartet and Tainted Love as a piano-based blues/rag are just a few of the fun little discoveries.

I've worked through about 2/3rds of the game and am still awe-struck by some of the things I've seen.

[Occulus]

44. There's a Madonna tune, too.

Played on a calliope, no less!

[Chisox08]

31. In Bioshock Infinite the USA still win the Civil War but Columbia

secedes from the Union after the US condemns them for attacking China during the Boxer Rebellion. The people of Columbia make Glenn Beck look sane.

[Spider Jerusalem]

40. The South was as Anglo-Saxon as the North, that's just silly.

The South if anything was based on more of an idea of feudal society; there were Confederates of French and Jewish ancestry (Judah Benjamin, Pierre Beauregard) and the majority of the people in states like Virginia and Tennessee were more likely "Anglo-Saxon" than Anglo-Norman. And it's doubtful that Scots OR Irish made up a majority of Confederate forces (Scots-Irish, aka Ulster Scots, were Lowland Scottish/Northern English from the Scots border country who got sent off to the Plantation of Ulster and thence to the US; strictly speaking most of them weren't Irish at all).

[Arkana]

45. It's not.

Bioshock Infinite takes place in the floating city of Columbia, built high above the clouds by a megalomaniac with a magnificent beard named Zachary Comstock.

Comstock's rationale is simple--since the surface world has become Sodom (in his eyes) he's going to create his own city. With blackjack. And hookers. Only without the blackjack and hookers. Problem is, he and all his citizens are xenophobic nutjobs who revere the Founding Fathers as gods (sound familiar?) One of the organizations in Columbia, the Fraternal Order of the Raven, is a pseudo-KKK who worship John Wilkes Booth for killing the "devil" Abraham Lincoln.

Cool game--plus, it's a slap in the face to every teabagger ideology that currently exists.

[Starry Messenger]

9. I'm lousy at games that require reflexes anymore, but this looks lovely.

[Occulus]

14. Oh, it's not all roses and sunshine, by any means.

Parts are horrifying, violent, or both, like when you acquire the "Murder of Crows" ability early on. I've been gaming a long time now, and that made me cringe. Let's just say the name of the thing is... appropriate.

[Arkana]

47. I dunno--I enjoyed hitting guys with that when they screamed "FALSE PROPHET!" at me.

[Blue_Tires]

10. Not really my type of game, but it does look beautifully rendered...

[Occulus]

15. Infinite has, by far, the best lighting I have ever seen.

I'd prefer a tick or two less bloom myself (personal preference, really; I'm not a huge fan of bloom when served by the bucket), but it's the photon scattering I find truly impressive. That's a real volumetric world you're looking at, in lighting terms- those sunbeams are actively rendered, and can be occluded by world and player objects.

[sadbear]

11. It's beautiful.

I can imagine that true virtual reality is not too far away. (Reminds me of a Red Dwarf episode, but that's another story. )

[onehandle]

12. A guy that works for me got it and started playing upon the midnight release.

He was blown away from the experience.

Wait until they can plug this stuff into our noggins.

[Demo_Chris]

13. Beautiful!

[Tempest]

17. So it's pretty

How's the game play?

To me that is much more important than how a game looks.

[Occulus]

18. The gameplay is very good, almost as good as visuals are, well, visually.

It's expertly-paced, for one thing. The combat is fluid and frenetic (particularly on hard difficulty), the weaponry is satisfyingly effective (except for one or two examples), the plot is good enough I don't want to say a word of spoilage... it's holding my interest as a whole package, to the point that speculating with friends who are at the same place in the game on why a character has done this or that is fun, even when not playing.

It's telling a story, and a good one, and it's doing it well so far (I'm taking my sweet time getting through it, just to see as much as possible on the first playthrough). Oh, and Elizabeth is no wilting lily here; she's an active participant alongside you. That alone is pretty impressive.

[Arkana]

48. Pretty much--plus, she can find me cash and ammo when I'm in tight spots.

[MattBaggins]

20. How's the team based PvP

[Occulus]

21. LOL

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. God looks a lot like John Brown.

[Occulus]

23. Comstock. Surrogate god, but yes, you're right

and I have to wonder if that specific image didn't in part inspire Comstock's overall 'look'.

[Ichingcarpenter]

24. The story line is politically amazing and intellectually thoughtful

Infinite is not built around jingoism, but only uses the concepts to help set the stage to tell the story of individuals caught up in the conflicts.[62] Another work that Levine took inspiration from was Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City about Dr. H. H. Holmes, the first recorded serial killer at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago; Levine considered how the work gave "a great optimism and excitement for the future and one of this ominous feeling at the same time".[61] Levine noted that in contrast to the character of Andrew Ryan from the first BioShock, where history had influenced some of his decisions, Booker and other characters have been directly involved with some of the forementioned history, reflected in how these characters react to certain scenarios.[35]
If you think about the founding principles of the United States, if you think about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, what's interesting to me is how two different people can look at the same set of documents by a single group of writers and come away with entirely different opinions about what those writings mean-so different that they're willing to kill each other over them.
Ken Levine, Irrational Games[63]
Levine considered how the founding documents of the United States can be interpreted in several ways, leading to conflict between those that hold various interpretations of those ideals, leading to Infinite's different factions.[63] Figureheads of the powers-that-be like Saltonstall are based on both historical and present-day nationalistic personalities, seeking to put the needs of America before others.[12] One example given by Levine is President Theodore Roosevelt, whose ideals were highly influential during America's transformation in the early 20th century; Levine considered how Roosevelt willingly gave up office to fight during the Spanish–American War.[64] On the other hand, the Vox Populi were based on historical factions that often splintered into small, independent groups that undertook violent actions, such as the Red Army Faction from the 1970s and the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front of present day.[12] During the course of the game's development period, the series of "Occupy" protests occurred across several cities; Levine, comparing these protests to other historical ones already incorporated into Columbia's history, used the real-time events to refine the game's story. Specifically, due to the nature of the various decentralized groups involved with the "Occupy" protests, Levine was able to define how the Vox Populi group would grow from its haphazard beginnings.[65] Levine reflected that despite the game's earlier setting, many of the modern day political turmoil calls back to similar tactics and behavior used in the early days of America's democracy, and thus provided a means to flesh out these aspects within the game.[66] In the various reveals of the Founders and Vox Populi, Levine and Irrational Games were criticized by various groups; upon demonstrating the Founders, people that favored the ideals of the Tea Party felt the game was attacking that movement, while on the announcement of the Vox Populi, Levine found some websites claiming the game was an attack on the labor movement, including one white supremist website that claimed "The Jew Ken Levine is making a white-person-killing simulator."[67] Levine considered that Infinite, like BioShock before it, was a Rorschach test for most people, though would be taken negatively in nature and upset them, as his vision in crafting the stories was "about not buying into a single point of view".[67] The character of Zachary Comstock was altered after Levine had spoken to a developer on the team with a specific religious viewpoint who was upset with the presentation of the ultra-religious Comstock and had written a resignation letter immediately after playtesting a late-game level that featured these aspects. After a discussion with the developer, Levine, who considers himself without a strong religious background, began considering the notion of forgiveness in the New Testament and set to figure out why people came to follow Comstock and to understand the ecstatic religious experience they would be seeking; he did not consider this reinvention of the character to be censorship, instead a means to present the story better to a broad audience. The developer remained with the team after this discussion.






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_Infinite#Story_and_setting

[X_Digger]

25. I'd pre-ordered it, loading it now, thanks.

I agree about the bloom. It seems bloom is the new 'brown'.

[Turborama]

27. My laptop can handle Deus Ex Human Revolution and Crysis 2, do you reckon it could cope with this?

Thanks for putting the OP together, it looks great!

[Occulus]

37. Hmm. Possibly. Go to this site:

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

Run their java tester app. This app is not the end-all-be-all "YES!!" or "NO!!" you're looking for, but it will give you a good idea of where your system is acceptable and where it's deficient.

[Turborama]

38. I tried that for Crysis 2 and it said no but I didn't believe it and got it anyway lol

It got the specs to my laptop wrong and I compared the sys reqs with what I have and thought it was worth a shot, very glad I did too as I can play it with no lag. I wrote about it here in the Gaming group.

I have found this since I asked you, though, and it says Bioshock Infinite is a maybe but with slow fps (is 23 fps too slow to play it?). It's the top game when you scroll down to Game Benchmarks: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html

[Serve The Servants]

28. Gorgeous indeed!

Too bad my PC can barely handle 'Medal of Honor: Allied Assault' at full settings, so no PC version for me and I doubt the console version will look as nice.

[ozone_man]

29. I will have to play this.

Last edited Thu Mar 28, 2013, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Thanks! What a great alternative to the Randian world of Bioshock I.

[WilliamPitt]

32. I am not now, nor will I ever be, a gamer.

But the image of the statue of John Wilkes Boothe grabbed me by the guts.

Jesus. I guess I have to watch someone play this game.

Beautiful images, btw. Thank you for sharing.

[Occulus]

33. Check YouTube for a good "Let's Play" of Infinite.

Just make sure you're able to watch it in 720p or 1080p, because you need all that detail for it to really pop.

The antagonists really do not like Lincoln. They're all very racist, as I think you can guess from a few of the grabs above.

[WilliamPitt]

34. Pulling off a really good dystopia is very difficult

Seems like these game designers nailed it.

[Occulus]

35. It really is a masterpiece.

I haven't seen anything in this industry executed this well in a long, loooonnnng time.

There are other parts that are amazing just for the "they actually put that in?" moments- like the references to the Boxer Rebellion and to Wounded Knee, which major characters in Infinite actually took direct part in and comment on from personal experience.

And nobody's hands are clean. Not one character ends pure as driven snow, and that's driven home time and again. The fact that both Booker (your character) and Elizabeth are not immune to that is like a breath of... well, I was going to say "fresh air", but it's more like smelling, say, New York or Tokyo again after being in the Grand Canyon for a month.

I honestly can't find anything to complain about even after making my way through so much of it. Even the Vox Populi, with whom most here on DU would seem to align, comes out looking very little better than those against whom they are fighting. There aren't "right" or "wrong" sides in the conflict between them and Comstock, and...

I could go on and on. If you don't plan to actually play it yourself, find a "Let's Play" that doesn't rush through the game, so you can see as much as possible. It's worth it.

[Arkana]

46. Eh, Columbia isn't so much a dystopia as it is "utopia gone horribly, horribly wrong".

It's paradise for all these lily-white xenophobic racist nutjobs.

Now Rapture from the original Bioshock--THAT was dystopia. It was an indictment of every tenet of libertarian philosophy.

[Occulus]

51. That's the sad part, isn't it? Columbia could have been a really wonderful place in this story

but it instead got turned into a superweapon inhabited by bigots and run by madmen.

The hardest enemies in the game- the Handymen- are tragic figures, the "good guys" and the "bad guys" can't be distinguished, and nobody's hands are clean.

I think I'm almost at the end. I've gotten to Columbia House- almost- and I can't decide whether anyone but Elizabeth is genuinely likable. Oh, they're all wonderful characters, but... she's the only one remotely moral, and even she isn't blameless.

WTF is this machine and how do I dismount

[X_Digger]

54. I'm at about the same place (almost entering columbia house)..

.. and it's nice to look at, but I'm not seeing the 'OMG!! BEST GAME EVAH'-ness of it. I imagine I'll finish it and not look back.

[Poll_Blind]

39. Reminds me of the kind of world that Fallout 3 pulled off pretty well.

But times 1000 or something.

I hope the writing is as good as the art.

PB

[Warren DeMontague]

41. I'm in the middle of it, right now. It is quite possibly the coolest game I've ever seen.

[Rex]

42. Very interesting storyline too.

nt.

[Warren DeMontague]

49. The first one had an interesting "spin" on Ayn Rand and Objectivism.

What strikes me as so cool about this game is that it is overwhelmingly ambitious. They could have tweaked one or two or three variables and still had a big seller. Instead, they went big.

[Rex]

50. I've been comparing notes with a friend

to see what the outcome is for doing different stuff in a linear storyline. Do you know is there more than one story arc? Depending on what you do?

[tabasco]

52. Importance?

LOL.

[Occulus]

53. As proof of this art form's maturity as an art form

Bioshock Infinite lets games get into the bar in which radio and film have hung out in for years, television had her wedding reception, and internet streaming proposed upon bended knee.

That good.

[Warren DeMontague]

55. eh, don't bother. No point.

Remember where you are.

[NutmegYankee]

56. This game is awesome!

In one scene, I came across a guy in a home and his comment was "don't worry, I'm a progressive!"

You are in a floating city full of rednecks - and you get to wipe them out and save good people. How much more awesome can it get?