BioShock 2: The Big Sister Revealed

The world has been given its first look at the new BioShock bad guy... and it's a girl.

Confirming a rumor that had been circulating since "sources" dropped the dime a few days ago, the cover of the April issue of Game Informer features a Little Sister riding on the back of a menacing Big Sister. The Big Sister herself is much smaller than the Big Daddies of the original BioShock and presumably much faster, with a bulbous head, a big, glowing red eye and a basket mounted on her back in which the Little Sister rides.

Game Informer will devote ten pages to the upcoming game and Kotaku says more details are likely to emerge at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, running March 23 to 27. Hopefully one of the questions they'll answer is why the game has gone from Big Daddy to Big Sister instead of Big Momma. It's a big mystery.

I have no doubt that all will become clear as the game's release approaches - with some surprises held back for players to discover on their own, of course - but I don't think I care quite as much as I should. Big Daddies were a unique and tragic videogame villain but I don't see that sort of creativity in the Big Sister; I see a forced attempt at cleverness, as though someone decided the Big Daddy concept had to stay but Big Daddies themselves were no longer adequate.

Or am I being too critical, too soon?