Bad news for PlayStation 3 owners: You're going to get the same crappy BioShock ending as the rest of us.
It's not all that terrible, really; BioShock did tail off near the end, with a conclusion that didn't live up to the promise of the overall game, but it was less a bad ending than just not as good as it should have been. Despite that, Melissa Miller of 2K Marin, the senior producer on the PlayStation 3 version, said the studio wanted to "respect" the original game, and wouldn't be messing around with Ken Levine's story.
"When you get a chance to work on something that was really creative you get the temptation to redo things," she told MTV Multiplayer. "We chose not to."
There will be some additions to the PS3 release of the game, including a new difficulty level, exclusive downloadable content and new trophies, but the story, graphics and gameplay will remain exactly as they were in the Xbox 360 version of the game. "The things we wanted to add were things that would complement what was created," Miller added.
BioShock was one of last year's biggest hits, but was criticized for its endgame, which devolved into a bog-standard boss fight and simplistic game endings that failed to reflect the game's otherwise nuanced plot and emphasis on moral choices. Levine himself admitted the flaws in an interview with Kotaku, saying he was surprised at how strongly people reacted to it. "I underestimated, way underestimated, the impact the story was going to have on people," he said. "I didn't realize it would change people's perspective on what to expect from gameplay."
BioShock for the PlayStation 3 is scheduled for release on October 21.
What the hell? How were the moral choices complex unless you were a psychopath? They are little girls. Who cry and run away from you. And weep over their fallen protectors and beg for their lives. The ending reflected the standard of the choices given.
Indigo_Dingo: What the hell? How were the moral choices complex unless you were a psychopath? They are little girls. Who cry and run away from you. And weep over their fallen protectors and beg for their lives. The ending reflected the standard of the choices given.
Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
Indigo_Dingo: What the hell? How were the moral choices complex unless you were a psychopath? They are little girls. Who cry and run away from you. And weep over their fallen protectors and beg for their lives. The ending reflected the standard of the choices given.
Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
Considering death is a momentary inconvenience in all of it, and only becomes a factor when going for the Ultimate Survivor thing, the latter. That only becomes an arguable factor upon the Introduction of the new Survivor mode.
Indigo_Dingo: What the hell? How were the moral choices complex unless you were a psychopath? They are little girls. Who cry and run away from you. And weep over their fallen protectors and beg for their lives. The ending reflected the standard of the choices given.
Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
Considering death is a momentary inconvenience in all of it, and only becomes a factor when going for the Ultimate Survivor thing, the latter. That only becomes an arguable factor upon the Introduction of the new Survivor mode.
I think you minimize the impact of moral choices in the backstory, especially the audiologs and way the characters have evolved from "geniuses" to "monsters". Suchong's notes in the loading screens are creepy...
The moral aspect of the Little Sisters and the surprisingly manichaean endings, although a blow to the knee at the end of a wonderful game, are secondary to me compared to how Rapture went down the drain... There lies the greatness of the storytelling...
Anyway, don't pout and enjoy a wonderful game, I'm curious to see the new content, and I hope that Miss Miller (if she's also the director of BioShock 2) will stay true to the spirit of Ken Levine in the next one.
Imitation Saccharin : Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
The biggest problem with BioShock is that while it was supposed to be what you describe, it was in fact something quite different. I saved every single Little Sister in the game, and scarcity of resources was never an issue. I'm not going to complain about not having to hoard ammo, but the highly-touted "moral" aspect of the game was rendered entirely moot by the fact that you could kill the LSs and get all their Adam, or save them and get just slightly less. There was never a choice to make, because there was never any pressing need to kill even one of them; the only reason to choose that path would be a desire to play the game as an evil character, which is an awfully long way from killing them out of necessity.
Further, the game's two-pronged ending - you're either a genetically-enhanced Mother Theresa or you're Hitler reborn - is also completely disconnected from the complex morality and story the game promised. Kill one Little Sister at the beginning, and your actions over the balance of the game have zero impact on the ending: You're condemned to being Captain Evil. Not a big deal, because as I pointed out there's no good reason to kill any of them, but the point is that it's a pale shadow of what it should have been.
Which is still in no way anything but a strong recommendation to rush out and buy the game if you haven't already, or if you own a PS3 and have to wait for it. It's an amazingly atmospheric FPS, with a brilliant story (cheap ending notwithstanding) and absolutely must be played by any fan of the genre. It's just that good.
Danzorz: Bioshock with a ps3 controller. ............. No...
Bioshock 1.2 without a lead weighted controller, no biggie.
I think I'm gonna wait until I can find it for half price, I've got the 360 version and as there are only 'enhancements' and not 'additions' to the PS3 version, I don't think I can justify buying it again just yet. Hmmm... maybe I'll just rent it instead, go excuse to play through the game again.
Imitation Saccharin : Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
The biggest problem with BioShock is that while it was supposed to be what you describe, it was in fact something quite different. I saved every single Little Sister in the game, and scarcity of resources was never an issue. I'm not going to complain about not having to hoard ammo, but the highly-touted "moral" aspect of the game was rendered entirely moot by the fact that you could kill the LSs and get all their Adam, or save them and get just slightly less. There was never a choice to make, because there was never any pressing need to kill even one of them; the only reason to choose that path would be a desire to play the game as an evil character, which is an awfully long way from killing them out of necessity.
Further, the game's two-pronged ending - you're either a genetically-enhanced Mother Theresa or you're Hitler reborn - is also completely disconnected from the complex morality and story the game promised. Kill one Little Sister at the beginning, and your actions over the balance of the game have zero impact on the ending: You're condemned to being Captain Evil. Not a big deal, because as I pointed out there's no good reason to kill any of them, but the point is that it's a pale shadow of what it should have been.
Which is still in no way anything but a strong recommendation to rush out and buy the game if you haven't already, or if you own a PS3 and have to wait for it. It's an amazingly atmospheric FPS, with a brilliant story (cheap ending notwithstanding) and absolutely must be played by any fan of the genre. It's just that good.
There is a weak excuse for this manicheism : Adam is the source for plasmid injection, but also an addictive mutagen, which supposedly makes you crave more from the first shot. I admit it's weak and doesn't transpire when you plan, but that's how I interpret it... Yet I still believe they had to wrap up an ending to release the game in time...
Imitation Saccharin : Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
The biggest problem with BioShock is that while it was supposed to be what you describe, it was in fact something quite different. I saved every single Little Sister in the game, and scarcity of resources was never an issue.
Exactly my thoughts!
Potential spoiler.
Spoiler: Click to View
The good ending actually reduced me to tears, so I don't really see what people are complaining about in that regard.
The final boss battle was quite thrilling, if a little easy.
Indigo_Dingo: What the hell? How were the moral choices complex unless you were a psychopath? They are little girls. Who cry and run away from you. And weep over their fallen protectors and beg for their lives. The ending reflected the standard of the choices given.
Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
Considering death is a momentary inconvenience in all of it, and only becomes a factor when going for the Ultimate Survivor thing, the latter. That only becomes an arguable factor upon the Introduction of the new Survivor mode.
I think you minimize the impact of moral choices in the backstory, especially the audiologs and way the characters have evolved from "geniuses" to "monsters". Suchong's notes in the loading screens are creepy...
The moral aspect of the Little Sisters and the surprisingly manichaean endings, although a blow to the knee at the end of a wonderful game, are secondary to me compared to how Rapture went down the drain... There lies the greatness of the storytelling...
Anyway, don't pout and enjoy a wonderful game, I'm curious to see the new content, and I hope that Miss Miller (if she's also the director of BioShock 2) will stay true to the spirit of Ken Levine in the next one.
I already played it, I know what I'm talking about - this was one of the two 360 exclusives I played when I was comparing the two systems (the other was Crackdown, I compared them to Resistance and Motorstorm). The Audiologs do add a level of humanity to the people around you, and make you feel pity for the things that are attacking you. You feel pity against the Little Sisters too. But there is nothing in the game that makes me feel angry towards them, so that when given the choice between killing them or saving them, I am never incentivised to do anything other than hit the Y button (or whatever button it was that meant save). I honestly went into one of the sequences saying I was gonna harvest this one, and I honestly couldn't do it. That is pure emotional blackmail - not a choice by any stretch of the imagination. The much stronger choices are in Grand Theft Auto IV - choosing between killing Dimitri or working for him, choosing which of the McRearies will live, shooting or sparing Dwaynes old girlfriend - these were not just black and white, they were fully shades of grey. The game also gave no hint as to which would help you more, so you actively had to rely purely on your gut instincts.
The good ending actually reduced me to tears, so I don't really see what people are complaining about in that regard.
I think it was the insulting tone of it. It actively approached it as if you were a saint because you didn't butcher some little girls just cause you had the chance.
The good ending actually reduced me to tears, so I don't really see what people are complaining about in that regard.
I think it was the insulting tone of it. It actively approached it as if you were a saint because you didn't butcher some little girls just cause you had the chance.
Good point. And you were the devil incarnate even if you did harvest only a few of them.
Imitation Saccharin : Well scarcity of resources and all that. Do you become evil because you must, or risk death while maintaining your morality?
The biggest problem with BioShock is that while it was supposed to be what you describe, it was in fact something quite different. I saved every single Little Sister in the game, and scarcity of resources was never an issue.
Exactly my thoughts!
Potential spoiler.
Spoiler: Click to View
The good ending actually reduced me to tears, so I don't really see what people are complaining about in that regard.
The final boss battle was quite thrilling, if a little easy.
I'm with you. Although the good ending didn't "reduce me to tears" it was rather pleasant and compelling. The final boss fight WAS fun, just too easy if you know how the heck to use your plasmids.
BioShock For PS3 Enhanced But Unchanged
Bad news for PlayStation 3 owners: You're going to get the same crappy BioShock ending as the rest of us.
It's not all that terrible, really; BioShock did tail off near the end, with a conclusion that didn't live up to the promise of the overall game, but it was less a bad ending than just not as good as it should have been. Despite that, Melissa Miller of 2K Marin, the senior producer on the PlayStation 3 version, said the studio wanted to "respect" the original game, and wouldn't be messing around with Ken Levine's story.
"When you get a chance to work on something that was really creative you get the temptation to redo things," she told MTV Multiplayer. "We chose not to."
There will be some additions to the PS3 release of the game, including a new difficulty level, exclusive downloadable content and new trophies, but the story, graphics and gameplay will remain exactly as they were in the Xbox 360 version of the game. "The things we wanted to add were things that would complement what was created," Miller added.
BioShock was one of last year's biggest hits, but was criticized for its endgame, which devolved into a bog-standard boss fight and simplistic game endings that failed to reflect the game's otherwise nuanced plot and emphasis on moral choices. Levine himself admitted the flaws in an interview with Kotaku, saying he was surprised at how strongly people reacted to it. "I underestimated, way underestimated, the impact the story was going to have on people," he said. "I didn't realize it would change people's perspective on what to expect from gameplay."
BioShock for the PlayStation 3 is scheduled for release on October 21.
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