Heavy Rain, BioShock 2 Delayed

Quantic Dream has announced that their much-anticipated thriller Heavy Rain is being pushed back to 2010. Co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere said that the game is on-time and on-budget, but also that they don't want it to come out at the same time as many other high-profile games. "Most publishers today realize that it's not ideal to release a new IP or a new genre just before Christmas. It's a very crowded place to be, and certain games need more space to live their life. Everybody at working on the project, both at Quantic and Sony, believe this is the right time." Meanwhile, Take-Two announced that BioShock 2 would be delayed as well, backing off from their October 30th EU release date and saying it will come out during the "first half of calendar 2010."

Re:"Much anticipated" == lost in the crowd?

[spire3661]

Movie industry has been doing this for decades. This is not a new technique at all and is smart business.

Good! This is a GOOD THING!

[MrMista_B]

A rushed game will be bad forever.

Take the time to get it right, and it will /suck less/.

Please, before all the bitching and moaning, remember - what would you prefer? A good game, or a rushed game?

Re:Will get over it.

[alienunknown]

Bioshock had no replay value as both choices you could have made led to exactly the same ending.

Thats not true. The game has three endings that are determined by if you rescue the little sisters or harvest them.

Overall, I think it was a good game but we all have different tastes.

Re:Will get over it.

[Thyamine]

I disagree and agree. Every FPS basically does what your complaints are. Some (like Call of Duty or Halo for example) might limit how much you can carry, but they're all artificial limits. You can only carry two pistols, or one pistol and a rifle, how are those equivalent spacewise? What I loved about Bioshock was the environment and letting myself become immersed in it. I expected a FPS, and got a FPS, but thoroughly enjoyed the art deco style, the fear they build in when you come around corners and here someone singing, seeing shadows around the bend, the environment they clearly spent time putting together.

And if you want to die more, you can turn off the Vita-Chambers (I think that's their name) so that you don't respawn. That's just a toggle setting.

Re:Will get over it.

[Ascagnel]

In one interview, 2K Boston (the developers) said they didn't like their ending and it was more a matter of not enough time than about really putting and ending on it.

Re:Will get over it.

[RogueyWon]

Fallout 3 is a mixed bag, perhaps. It has a few choices that are a bit too start "nuke Megaton or save it", but it also has some which are far more complex.

I think the best of these comes in the second downloadable content pack, "The Pitt". I'm about to spoiler this massively, so those who haven't yet played this, but think they might do so, look away now.

Yes, now.

Right now.

Here be spoilers.

Ok, for those who are still reading, here's the basic synopsis of The Pitt.

The Lone Wanderer picks up a distress call, from the North of the Capital Wastelands. He makes his way there, and comes to the assistance of Werhner, an escaped slave under attack by raiders. Werhner outlines his situation to the Lone Wanderer; he has escaped from slavery in Pittsburg, and wishes for the Lone Wanderer's help in returning there and liberating the slaves.

The Lone Wanderer travels with Werhner to Pittsburg. Unlike most major US cities, "The Pitt" did not receive any direct nuclear strikes during the war, so its buildings are largely intact (though crumbling somewhat after 200 years of neglect). Unfortunately, it wasn't spared the fallout, and the city is highly contaminated, with radiation poisoning, disease and mutation being rife, even by the general standards of the Fallout 3 world. The city is currenly in the grip of a plague that mutates sufferers into mindless, psychotic freaks. It is rumoured that Lord Ashur, the ruler of the Pitt, has developed a cure, but it has not been forthcoming. As part of his plan to free the slaves, Werhner wants you to steal the cure.

At first, the Lone Wanderer has relatively few choices. He follows Werhner's plan to infiltrate the city as a slave. Life in The Pitt is brutal and usually short. The slaves are brutally oppressed by the slavers, many of whom are essentially common thugs. Because the high levels of radiation and mutation in the Pitt make natural reproduction almost impossible, the slave population is maintained through kidnapping of new slaves, as well as trade with the slavers of the Capital Wastelands.

Eventually, the Lone Wanderer manages to win his freedom, through victory in a series of gladiatorial arena battles. As one of the few slaves to win his freedom in this manner, he is granted an audience with Lord Ashur. Werhner's plan is for the Lone Wanderer to use this as an opportunity to steel the cure (killing Lord Ashur if possible), and he has timed a slave uprising to coincide with it. With the city's leadership thrown into chaos by the Lone Wanderer, the slaves would be able to overthrow the regime and escape.

Ok... so far, it all seems simple enough. Oppressed slaves, a charismatic leader trying to win their freedom, and brutal oppressors. Not much of a moral choice here.

Then the Lone Wanderer meets Ashur. Ashur isn't some comic book villain. He's trying to build a functioning society. He doesn't want to use slavery, but so complete has been the collapse of civilisation that the only way to get the rebuilding process started is through force. Once conditions improve, the regime will be relaxed and slavery abolished. Of course, the Lone Wanderer doesn't have to believe Ashur; plenty of characters in Fallout 3 will lie to your face - but he does give the impression of being sincere.

On the subject of a cure, Ashur has more concrete proof. The basis for a cure exists; his own infant daughter, who has been born with natural immunity to the effects of radiation poisoning and the plague. Ashur's scientist wife is working to discern the factors that grant her this immunity, so that it can be replicated. The cure's not going to be able to help the current slaves, but it might be the salvation of the next generation.

Ashur also explains that Werhner is his own former Lieutenant, who turned against him because he wanted more power. Ashur knows that the Lone Wanderer has been sent by Werhner and offers him a choice; turn against Werhner and help surpress the slave revolt.

This was, without a doubt, the most

Re:I don't know why people complain about Bioshock

[$1uck]

Bioshock is most certainly not on rails. Unless you mean there is really just one course through the game (which isn't true either). When you say something like "on rails" those words have a specific meaning don't ruin the meaning by applying the term when you mean something else.